iiiiii 


HENRY  WALKER, 

(BooKSHi.LKR)  Ltd, 

Q7     Rriddfa  +  o 


/' 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

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http://www.archive.org/details/fantasiaofunconsOOIawrrich 


FANTASIA  OF  THE 
UNCONSCIOUS 


FANTASIA 

of  the 

UNCONSCIOUS 


BY 

D.  H.  LAWRENCE 


^ 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  SELTZER 

1922 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
Thomas  Seltzer,  Inc. 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Pktntep  iir  THE  United  States  or  America 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAG» 

Foreword vii 

I.    Introduction i 

II.   The  Holy  Family 14 

III.  Plexuses,  Planes  and  So  On 29 

IV.  Trees  and  Babies   and  Papas  and  Mamas  42 
V.   The  Five  Senses 64 

VI.    First  Glimmerings  of  Mind 85 

VII.    First  Steps  in  Education  .      .         .      .      .  loi 
VIII.    Education  and  Sex  in  Man,  Woman  and 

Child 119 

IX.    The  Birth  of  Sex 140 

X.    Parent  Love 164 

XI.   The  Vicious  Circle 185 

XII.    Litany  of  Exhortations  , 209 

XIII.  COSMOLOGICAL 214 

XIV.  Sleep  and  Dreams 234 

XV.   The  Lower  Self     .     . 263 

Epilogue 291 


FOREWORD 

The  present  book  is  a  continuation  from 
"Psychoanalysis  and  the  Unconscious."  The 
generality  of  readers  had  better  just  leave  it 
alone.  The  generality  of  critics  likewise.  I 
really  don't  want  to  convince  anybody.  It  is 
quite  in  opposition  to  my  whole  nature.  I  don't 
intend  my  books  for  the  generality  of  readers. 
I  count  it  a  mistake  of  our  mistaken  democracy, 
that  every  man  who  can  read  print  is  allowed  to 
believe  that  he  can  read  all  that  is  printed.  I 
count  it  a  misfortune  that  serious  books  are  ex- 
posed in  the  public  market,  like  slaves  exposed 
naked  for  sale.  But  there  we  are,  since  we  live 
in  an  age  of  mistaken  democracy,  we  must  go 
through  with  it. 

I  warn  the  generality  o?  readers,  that  this 
present  book  will  seem  to  them  only  a  rather 
more  revolting  mass  of  wordy  nonsense  than  the 
last.  I  would  warn  the  generality  of  critics  to 
throw  it  in  the  waste  paper  basket  without  more 
ado. 

As  for  the  limited  few,  in  whom  one  must  per- 

vii 


viii  FOREWORD 

force  find  an  answerer,  I  may  as  well  say  straight 
off  that  I  stick  to  the  solar  plexus.  That  state- 
ment alone,  I  hope,  will  thin  their  numbers 
considerably. 

Finally,  to  the  remnants  of  a  remainder,  in 
order  to  apologize  for  the  sudden  lurch  into 
cosmology,  or  cosmogony,  in  this  book,  I  wish 
to  say  that  the  whole  thing  hangs  inevitably  to- 
gether. I  am  not  a  scientist.  I  am  an  amateur 
of  amateurs.  As  one  of  my  critics  said,  you 
either  believe  or  you  don't. 

I  am  not  a  proper  archaeologist  nor  an  anthro- 
pologist nor  an  ethnologist.  I  am  no  "scholar" 
of  any  sort.  But  I  am  very  grateful  to  scholars 
for  their  sound  work.  I  have  found  hints,  sug- 
gestions for  what  I  say  here  in  all  kinds  of 
scholarly  books,  from  the  Yoga  and  Plato  and 
St.  John  the  Evangel  and  the  early  Greek  phi- 
losophers like  Herakleitos  down  to  Fraser  and 
his  "Golden  Bough,"  and  even  Freud  and  Fro- 
benius.  Even  then  I  only  remember  hints — 
and  I  proceed  by  intuition.  This  leaves  you 
quite  free  to  dismiss  the  whole  wordy  mass  of 
revolting  nonsense,  without  a  qualm. 

Only  let  me  say,  that  to  my  mind  there  is  a 
great  field  of  science  which  is  as  yet  quite  closed 
to  us.    I  refer  to  the  science  which  proceeds  in 


FOREWORD  ix 

terms  of  life  and  is  established  on  data  of  living 
experience  and  of  sure  intuition.  Call  it  sub- 
jective science  if  you  like.  Our  objective  science 
of  modern  knowledge  concerns  itself  only  with 
phenomena,  and  with  phenomena  as  regarded 
in  their  cause-and-effect  relationship.  I  have 
nothing  to  say  against  our  science.  It  Is  perfect 
as  far  as  it  goes.  But  to  regard  it  as  exhausting 
the  whole  scope  of  human  possibility  in  knowl- 
edge seems  to  me  just  puerile.  Our  science  is 
a  science  of  the  dead  world.  Even  biology  never 
considers  life,  but  only  mechanistic  functioning 
and  apparatus  of  life. 

I  honestly  think  that  the  great  pagan  world 
of  which  Egypt  and  Greece  were  the  last  living 
terms,  the  great  pagan  world  which  preceded 
our  own  era  once,  had  a  vast  and  perhaps  perfect 
science  of  its  own,  a  science  in  terms  of  life.  In 
our  era  this  science  crumbled  into  magic  and 
charlatanry.    But  even  wisdom  crumbles. 

I  believe  that  this  great  science  previous  to 
ours  and  quite  different  in  constitution  and 
nature  from  our  science  once  was  universal, 
established  all  over  the  then-existing  globe.  I 
believe  it  was  esoteric,  invested  in  a  large  priest- 
hood. Just  as  mathematics  and  mechanics  and 
physics  are  defined  and  expounded  in  the  same 


X  FOREWORD 

way  in  the  universities  of  China  or  Bolivia  or 
London  or  Moscow  to-day,  so,  it  seems  to  me,  in 
the  great  world  previous  to  ours  a  great  science 
and  cosmology  were  taught  esoterically  in  all 
countries  of  the  globe,  Asia,  Polynesia,  America, 
Atlantis  and  Europe.  Belt's  suggestion  of  the 
geographical  nature  of  this  previous  world 
seems  to  me  most  interesting.  In  the  period 
which  geologists  call  the  Glacial  Period,  the 
waters  of  the  earth  must  have  been  gathered  up 
in  a  vast  body  on  the  higher  places  of  our  globe, 
vast  worlds  of  ice.  And  the  sea-beds  of  to-day 
must  have  been  comparatively  dry.  So  that  the 
Azores  rose  up  mountainous  from  the  plain  of 
Atlantis,  where  the  Atlantic  now  washes,  and 
the  Easter  Isles  and  the  Marquesas  and  the  rest 
rose  lofty  from  the  marvelous  great  continent  of 
the  Pacific. 

In  that  world  men  lived  and  taught  and  knew, 
and  were  in  one  complete  correspondence  over 
all  the  earth.  Men  wandered  back  and  forth 
from  Atlantis  to  the  Polynesian  Continent  as 
men  now  sail  from  Europe  to  America.  The 
interchange  was  complete,  and  knowledge,  sci- 
ence was  universal  over  the  earth,  cosmopolitan 
as  it  is  to-day. 

Then  came  the  melting  of  the  glaciers,  and 


FOREWORD  xi 

the  world  flood.  The  refugees  from  the  drowned 
continents  fled  to  the  high  places  of  America, 
Europe,  Asia,  and  the  Pacific  Isles.  And  some 
degenerated  naturally  into  cave  men,  neolithic 
and  paleolithic  creatures,  and  some  retained 
their  marvelous  innate  beauty  and  life-perfec- 
tion, as  the  South  Sea  Islanders,  and  some  wan- 
dered savage  in  Africa,  and  some,  like  Druids 
or  Etruscans  or  Chaldeans  or  Amerindians  or 
Chinese,  refused  to  forget,  but  taught  the  old 
wisdom,  only  in  its  half-forgotten,  symbolic 
forms.  More  or  less  forgotten,  as  knowledge: 
remembered  as  ritual,  gesture,  and  myth-story. 
And  so,  the  intense  potency  of  symbols  is  part 
at  least  memory.  And  so  it  is  that  all  the  great 
symbols  and  myths  which  dominate  the  world 
when  our  history  first  begins,  are  very  much  the 
same  in  every  country  and  every  people,  the 
great  myths  all  relate  to  one  another.  And  so 
it  is  that  these  myths  now  begin  to  hypnotize  us 
again,  our  own  impulse  towards  our  own  sci- 
entific way  of  understanding  being  almost  spent. 
And  so,  besides  myths,  we  find  the  same  mathe- 
matic  figures,  cosmic  graphs  which  remain 
among  the  aboriginal  peoples  in  all  continents, 
mystic  figures  and  signs  whose  true  cosmic  or 
scientific  significance  is  lost,  yet  which  continue 


xii  FOREWORD 

in  use  for  purposes  of  conjuring  or  divining. 

If  my  reader  finds  this  bosh  and  abracadabra, 
all  right  for  him.  Only  I  have  no  more  regard 
for  his  little  crowings  on  his  own  little  dung- 
hill. Myself,  I  am  not  so  sure  that  I  am  one  of 
the  one-and-onlies.  I  like  the  wide  world  of 
centuries  and  vast  ages — mammoth  worlds  be- 
yond our  day,  and  mankind  so  wonderful  in  his 
distances,  his  history  that  has  no  beginning  yet 
always  the  pomp  and  the  magnificence  of  human 
splendor  unfolding  through  the  earth's  chang- 
ing periods.  Floods  and  fire  and  convulsions 
and  ice-arrest  intervene  between  the  great  glam- 
orous civilizations  of  mankind.  But  nothing 
will  ever  quench  humanity  and  the  human  poten- 
tiality to  evolve  something  magnificent  out  of  a 
renewed  chaos. 

I  do  not  believe  in  evolution,  but  in  the 
strangeness  and  rainbow-change  of  ever-renewed 
creative  civilizations. 

So  much,  then,  for  my  claim  to  remarkable  dis- 
coveries. I  believe  I  am  only  trying  to  stammer 
out  the  first  terms  of  a  forgotten  knowledge. 
But  I  have  no  desire  to  revive  dead  kings,  or 
dead  sages.  It  is  not  for  me  to  arrange  fossils, 
and  decipher  hieroglyphic  phrases.  I  couldn't 
do  it  if  I  wanted  to.     But  then  I  can  do  some- 


FOREWORD  xiii 

thing  else.  The  soul  must  take  the  hint  from 
the  relics  our  scientists  have  so  marvelously 
gathered  out  of  the  forgotten  past,  and  from  the 
hint  develop  a  new  living  utterance.  The  spark 
is  from  dead  wisdom,  but  the  fire  is  life. 

And  as  an  example — a  very  simple  one — of 
how  a  scientist  of  the  most  innocent  modern  sort 
may  hint  at  truths  which,  when  stated,  he  would 
laugh  at  as  fantastic  nonsense,  let  us  quote  a 
word  from  the  already  old-fashioned  '^Golden 
Bough."  "It  must  have  appeared  to  the  ancient 
Aryan  that  the  sun  was  periodically  recruited 
from  the  fire  which  resided  in  the  sacred  oak." 

Exactly.  The  fire  which  resided  in  the  Tree 
of  Life.  That  is,  life  itself.  So  we  must  read : 
"It  must  have  appeared  to  the  ancient  Aryan 
that  the  sun  was  periodically  recruited  from 
life." — ^Which  is  what  the  early  Greek  phi- 
losophers were  always  saying.  And  which  still 
seems  to  me  the  real  truth,  the  clue  to  the  cos- 
mos. Instead  of  life  being  drawn  from  the  sun, 
it  is  the  emanation  from  life  itself,  that  is,  from 
all  the  living  plants  and  creatures  which  nour- 
ish the  sun. 

Of  course,  my  dear  critic,  the  ancient  Aryans 
were  just  doddering — the  old  duffers:  or  bab- 
bling, the  babes.    But  as  for  me,  I  have  some 


xiv  FOREWORD 

respect  for  my  ancestors,  and  believe  they  had 
more  up  their  sleeve  than  just  the  marvel  of  the 
unborn  me. 

One  last  v^eary  little  word.  This  pseudo- 
philosophy  of  mine — *'pollyanalytics,"  as  one  of 
my  respected  critics  might  say — is  deduced  from 
the  novels  and  poems,  not  the  reverse.  The 
novels  and  poems  come  unwatched  out  of  one's 
pen.  And  then  the  absolute  need  which  one  has 
for  some  sort  of  satisfactory  mental  attitude 
towards  oneself  and  things  in  general  makes  one 
try  to  abstract  some  definite  conclusions  from 
one's  experiences  as  a  writer  and  as  a  man.  The 
novels  and  poems  are  pure  passionate  experience. 
These  "pollyanalytics"  are  inferences  made 
afterwards,  from  the  experience. 

And  finally,  it  seems  to  me  that  even  art  is 
utterly  dependent  on  philosophy:  or  if  you  pre- 
fer it,  on  a  metaphysic.  The  metaphysic  or  phi- 
losophy may  not  be  anywhere  very  accurately 
stated  and  may  be  quite  unconscious,  in  the 
artist,  yet  it  is  a  metaphysic  that  governs  men  at 
the  time,  and  is  by  all  men  more  or  less  compre- 
hended, and  lived.  Men  live  and  see  according 
to  some  gradually  developing  and  gradually 
withering  vision.  This  vision  exists  also  as  a 
dynamic    idea    or    metaphysic — exists    first    as 


FOREWORD  XV 

such.  Then  it  is  unfolded  into  life  and  art.  Our 
vision,  our  belief,  our  metaphysic  is  wearing 
woefully  thin,  and  the  art  is  wearing  absolutely 
threadbare.  We  have  no  future;  neither  for  our 
hopes  nor  our  aims  nor  our  art.  It  has  all  gone 
gray  and  opaque. 

We've  got  to  rip  the  old  veil  of  a  vision  across, 
and  find  what  the  heart  really  believes  in,  after 
all :  and  what  the  heart  really  wants,  for  the  next 
future.  And  we've  got  to  put  it  down  in  terms 
of  belief  and  of  knowledge.  And  then  go  for- 
ward again,  to  the  fulfillment  in  life  and  art. 

Rip  the  veil  of  the  old  vision  across,  and  walk 
through  the  rent.  And  if  I  try  to  do  this — well, 
why  not?  If  I  try  to  write  down  what  I  see — 
why  not?  If  a  publisher  likes  to  print  the  book 
— all  right.  And  if  anybody  wants  to  read  it,  let 
him.  But  why  anybody  should  read  one  single 
word  if  he  doesn't  want  to,  I  don't  see.  Unless 
of  course  he  is  a  critic  who  needs  to  scribble  a 
dollar's  worth  of  words,  no  matter  how. 

Taormina 

October  8,  1921 


FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 
CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

LET  US  Start  by  making  a  little  apology  to 
Psychoanalysis.  It  wasn't  fair  to  jeer  at 
the  psychoanalytic  unconscious;  or  perhaps  it 
was  fair  to  jeer  at  the  psychoanalytic  uncon- 
scious, which  is  truly  a  negative  quantity  and  an 
unpleasant  menagerie.  What  was  really  not 
fair  was  to  jeer  at  Psychoanalysis  as  if  Freud 
had  invented  and  described  nothing  but  an  un- 
conscious, in  all  his  theory. 

The  unconscious  is  not,  of  course,  the  clue  to 
the  Freudian  theory.  The  real  clue  is  sex.  A 
sexual  motive  is  to  be  attributed  to  all  human 
activity. 

Now  this  is  going  too  far.  We  are  bound  to 
admit  than  an  element  of  sex  enters  into  all 
human  activity.  But  so  does  an  element  of 
greed,  and  of  many  other  things.  We  are  bound 
to  admit  that  into  all  human  relationships,  par- 
ticularly adult  human  relationships,  a  large  ele- 


2  FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

ment  of  sex  enters.  We  are  thankful  that  Freud 
has  insisted  on  this.  We  are  thankful  that  Freud 
pulled  us  somewhat  to  earth,  out  of  all  our  clouds 
of  superfineness.  What  Freud  says  is  always 
partly  true.  And  half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no 
bread. 

But  really,  there  is  the  other  half  of  the  loaf. 
All  is  not  sex.  And  a  sexual  motive  is  not  to  be 
attributed  to  all  human  activities.  We  know  it, 
without  need  to  argue. 

Sex  surely  has  a  specific  meaning.  Sex  means 
the  being  divided  into  male  and  female;  and  the 
magnetic  desire  or  impulse  which  puts  male 
apart  from  female,  in  a  negative  or  sundering 
magnetism,  but  which  also  draws  male  and 
female  together  in  a  long  and  infinitely  varied 
approach  towards  the  critical  act  of  coition. 
Sex  without  the  consummating  act  of  coition  is 
never  quite  sex,  in  human  relationships:  just  as 
a  eunuch  is  never  quite  a  man.  That  is  to  say, 
the  act  of  coition  is  the  essential  clue  to  sex. 

Now  does  all  life  work  up  to  the  one  consum- 
mating act  of  coition?  In  one  direction,  it  does, 
and  it  would  be  better  if  psychoanalysis  plainly 
said  so.  In  one  direction,  all  life  works  up  to 
the  one  supreme  moment  of  coition.  Let  us  all 
admit  it,  sincerely. 


INTRODUCTION  3 

But  we  are  not  confined  to  one  direction  only, 
or  to  one  exclusive  consummation.  Was  the 
building  of  the  cathedrals  a  working  up  towards 
the  act  of  coition?  Was  the  dynamic  impulse 
sexual?  No.  The  sexual  element  was  present, 
and  important.  But  not  predominant.  The 
same  in  the  building  of  the  Panama  Canal.  The 
sexual  impulse,  in  its  widest  form,  was  a  very 
great  impulse  towards  the  building  of  the 
Panama  Canal.  But  there  was  something  else, 
of  even  higher  importance,  and  greater  dynamic 
power. 

And  what  is  this  other,  greater  impulse?  It  is 
the  desire  of  the  human  male  to  build  a  world: 
not  ''to  build  a  world  for  you,  dear" ;  but  to  build 
up  out  of  his  own  self  and  his  own  belief  and  his 
own  effort  something  wonderful.  Not  merely 
something  useful.  Something  wonderful.  Even 
the  Panama  Canal  would  never  have  been  built 
simply  to  let  ships  through.  It  is  the  pure  dis- 
interested craving  of  the  human  male  to  make 
something  wonderful,  out  of  his  own  head  and 
his  own  self,  and  his  own  souPs  faith  and  delight, 
which  starts  everything  going.  This  is  the 
prime  motivity.  And  the  motivity  of  sex  is  sub- 
sidiary to  this:  often  directly  antagonistic. 

That  is,  the  essentially  religious  or  creative 


4  FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

motive  is  the  first  motive  for  all  human  activity. 
The  sexual  motive  comes  second.  And  there  is 
a  great  conflict  between  the  interests  of  the  two, 
at  all  times. 

What  we  want  to  do,  is  to  trace  the  creative 
or  religious  motive  to  its  source  in  the  human 
being,  keeping  in  mind  always  the  near  rela- 
tionship between  the  religious  motive  and  the 
sexual.  The  two  great  impulses  are  like  man 
and  wife,  or  father  and  son.  It  is  no  use  putting 
one  under  the  feet  of  the  other. 

The  great  desire  to-day  is  to  deny  the  religious 
impulse  altogether,  or  else  to  assert  its  absolute 
alienity  from  the  sexual  impulse.  The  orthodox 
religious  world  says  faugh!  to  sex.  Whereupon 
we  thank  Freud  for  giving  them  tit  for  tat.  But 
the  orthodox  scientific  world  says  fie!  to  the  re- 
ligious impulse.  The  scientist  wants  to  discover 
a  cause  for  everything.  And  there  is  no  cause 
for  the  religious  impulse.  Freud  is  with  the  sci- 
entists. Jung  dodges  from  his  university  gown 
into  a  priest's  surplice  till  we  don't  know  where 
we  are.  We  prefer  Freud's  Sex  to  Jung's  Libido 
or  Bergson's  Elan  VitaL  Sex  has  at  least  some 
definite  reference,  though  when  Freud  makes  sex 
accountable  for  everything  he  as  good  as  makes 
it  accountable  for  nothing. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

We  refuse  any  Cause,  whether  it  be  Sex  or 
Libido  or  Elan  Vital  or  ether  or  unit  of  force 
or  perpetuum  mobile  or  anything  else.  But  also 
we  feel  that  we  cannot,  like  Moses,  perish  on  the 
top  of  our  present  ideal  Pisgah,  or  take  the  next 
step  into  thin  air.  There  we  are,  at  the  top  of 
our  Pisgah  of  ideals,  crying  Excelsior  and  try- 
ing to  clamber  up  into  the  clouds :  that  is,  if  we 
are  idealists  with  the  religious  impulse  rampant 
in  our  breasts.  If  we  are  scientists  we  practice 
aeroplane  flying  or  eugenics  or  disarmament  or 
something  equally  absurd. 

The  promised  land,  if  it  be  anywhere,  lies 
away  beneath  our  feet.  No  more  prancing  up- 
wards. No  more  uplift.  No  more  little  Excelsiors 
crying  world-brotherhood  and  international  love 
and  Leagues  of  Nations.  Idealism  and  material- 
ism amount  to  the  same  thing  on  top  of  Pisgah, 
and  the  space  is  very  crowded.  We're  all  cor- 
nered on  our  mountain  top,  climbing  up  one  an- 
other and  standing  on  one  another's  faces  in  our 
scream  of  Excelsior. 

To  your  tents,  O  Israel!  Brethren,  let  us  go 
down.  We  will  descend.  The  way  to  our  pre- 
cious Canaan  lies  obviously  downhill.  An  end 
of  uplift.  Downhill  to  the  land  of  milk  and 
honey.    The  blood  will  soon  be  flowing  faster 


6  FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

than  either,  but  we  can't  help  that.  We  can't 
help  it  if  Canaan  has  blood  in  its  veins,  instead 
of  pure  milk  and  honey. 

If  it  is  a  question  of  origins,  the  origin  is 
always  the  same,  whatever  we  say  about  it.  So 
is  the  cause.  Let  that  be  a  comfort  to  us.  If  we 
want  to  talk  about  God,  well,  we  can  please  our- 
selves. God  has  been  talked  about  quite  a  lot, 
and  He  doesn't  seem  to  mind.  Why  we  should 
take  it  so  personally  is  a  problem.  Likewise  if 
we  wish  to  have  a  tea  party  with  the  atom,  let 
us :  or  with  the  wriggling  little  unit  of  energy,  or 
the  ether,  or  the  Libido,  or  the  Elan  Vital,  or  any 
other  Cause.  Only  don't  let  us  have  sex  for  tea. 
We've  all  got  too  much  of  it  under  the  table ;  and 
really,  for  my  part,  I  prefer  to  keep  mine  there, 
no  matter  what  the  Freudians  say  about  me. 

But  it  is  tiring  to  go  to  any  more  tea  parties 
with  the  Origin,  or  the  Cause,  or  even  the  Lord. 
Let  us  pronounce  the  mystic  Om,  from  the  pit 
of  the  stomach,  and  proceed. 

There's  not  a  shadow  of  doubt  about  it,  the 
First  Cause  is  just  unknowable  to  us,  and  we'd 
be  sorry  if  it  wasn't.  Whether  it's  God  or  the 
Atom.    All  I  say  is  Om! 

The  first  business  of  every  faith  is  to  declare 
its  ignorance.    I  don't  know  where  I  come  from 


INTRODUCTION  7 

— nor  where  I  exit  to.  I  don't  know  the  origins 
of  life  nor  the  goal  of  death.  I  don't  know  how 
the  two  parent  cells  which  are  my  biological 
origin  became  the  me  which  I  am.  I  don't  in 
the  least  know  what  those  two  parent  cells  were. 
The  chemical  analysis  is  just  a  farce,  and  my 
father  and  mother  were  just  vehicles.  And  yet, 
I  must  say,  since  I've  got  to  know  about  the 
two  cells,  I'm  glad  I  do  know. 

The  Moses  of  Science  and  the  Aaron  of 
Idealism  have  got  the  whole  bunch  of  us  here  on 
top  of  Pisgah.  It's  a  tight  squeeze,  and  we'll  be 
falling  very,  very  foul  of  one  another  in  five 
minutes,  unless  some  of  us  climb  down.  But 
before  leaving  our  eminence  let  us  have  a  look 
round,  and  get  our  bearings. 

They  say  that  way  lies  the  New  Jerusalem  of 
universal  love :  and  over  there  the  happy  valley 
of  indulgent  Pragmatism :  and  there,  quite  near, 
is  the  chirpy  land  of  the  Vitalists :  and  in  those 
dark  groves  the  home  of  successful  Analysis,  sur- 
named  Psycho:  and  over  those  blue  hills  the 
Supermen  are  prancing  about,  though  you  can't 
see  them.  And  there  is  Besantheim,  and  there  is 
Eddyhowe,  and  there,  on  that  queer  little  table- 
land, is  Wilsonia,  and  just  round  the  corner  is 
Rabindranathopolis.  .  .  . 


8  FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

But  Lord,  I  can't  see  anything.  Help  me, 
heaven,  to  a  telescope,  for  I  see  blank  nothing. 

I'm  not  going  to  try  any  more.  I'm  going  to 
sit  down  on  my  posterior  and  sluther  full  speed 
down  this  Pisgah,  even  if  it  cost  me  my  trouser 
seat.    So  ho ! — away  we  go. 

In  the  beginning — there  never  was  any  begin- 
ning, but  let  it  pass.  We've  got  to  make  a  start 
somehow.  In  the  very  beginning  of  all  things, 
time  and  space  and  cosmos  and  being,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  all  these  was  a  little  living  creature. 
But  I  don't  know  even  if  it  was  little.  In  the 
beginning  was  a  living  creature,  its  plasm 
quivering  and  its  life-pulse  throbbing.  This 
little  creature  died,  as  little  creatures  always  do. 
But  not  before  it  had  had  young  ones.  When  the 
daddy  creature  died,  it  fell  to  pieces.  And  that 
was  the  beginning  of  the  cosmos.  Its  little  body 
fell  down  to  a  speck  of  dust,  which  the  young 
ones  clung  to  because  they  must  cling  to  some- 
thing. Its  little  breath  flew  asunder,  the  hotness 
and  brightness  of  the  little  beast — I  beg  your 
pardon,  I  mean  the  radiant  energy  from  the 
corpse  flew  away  to  the  right  hand,  and  seemed 
to  shine  warm  in  the  air,  while  the  clammy  en- 
ergy from  the  body  flew  away  to  the  left  hand, 
and  seemed  dark  and  cold.    And  so,  the  first  little 


INTRODUCTION  g 

master  was  dead  and  done  for,  and  instead  of  his 
little  living  body  there  was  a  speck  of  dust  in  the 
middle,  which  became  the  earth,  and  on  the  right 
hand  was  a  brightness  which  became  the  sun, 
rampaging  with  all  the  energy  that  had  come 
out  of  the  dead  little  master,  and  on  the  left  hand 
a  darkness  which  felt  like  an  unrisen  moon. 
And  that  was  how  the  Lord  created  the  world. 
Except  that  I  know  nothing  about  the  Lord,  so 
I  shouldn't  mention  it. 

But  I  forgot  the  soul  of  the  little  master.  It 
probably  did  a  bit  of  flying  as  well — and  then 
came  back  to  the  young  ones.  It  seems  most 
natural  that  way. 

Which  is  my  account  of  the  Creation.  And 
I  mean  by  it,  that  Life  is  not  and  never  was  any- 
thing but  living  creatures.  That's  what  life  is 
and  will  be,  just  living  creatures,  no  matter  how 
large  you  make  the  capital  L.  Out  of  living 
creatures  the  material  cosmos  was  made :  out  of 
the  death  of  living  creatures,  when  their  little 
living  bodies  fell  dead  and  fell  asunder  into  all 
sorts  of  matter  and  forces  and  energies,  sun, 
moons,  stars  and  worlds.  So  you  got  the  universe. 
Where  you  got  the  living  creature  from,  that 
first  one,  don't  ask  me.    He  was  just  there.    But 


lo         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

he  was  a  little  person  with  a  soul  of  his  own.    He 
wasn't  Life  with  a  capital  L. 

If  you  don't  believe  me,  then  don't.  I'll  even 
give  you  a  little  song  to  sing. 

"If  it  be  not  true  to  me 

What  care  I  how  true  It  be  .    .  " 

That's  the  kind  of  man  I  really  like,  chirping  his 
insouciance.    And  I  chirp  back: 

"Though  it  be  not  true  to  thee 

It's  gay  and  gospel  truth  to  me.   .  ." 

The  living  live,  and  then  die.  They  pass 
away,  as  we  know,  to  dust  and  to  oxygen  and 
nitrogen  and  so  on.  But  what  we  don't  know, 
and  what  we  might  perhaps  know  a  little  more, 
is  how  they  pass  away  direct  into  life  itself — that 
is,  direct  into  the  living.  That  is,  how  many 
dead  souls  fly  over  our  untidiness  like  swallows 
and  build  under  the  eaves  of  the  living.  How 
many  dead  souls,  like  swallows,  twitter  and  breed 
thoughts  and  instincts  under  the  thatch  of  my 
hair  and  the  eaves  of  my  forehead,  I  don't  know. 
But  I  believe  a  good  many.  And  I  hope  they 
have  a  good  time.  And  I  hope  not  too  many 
are  bats. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  I  believe  in  the  souls  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  ii 

dead.  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  say,  that  I  believe 
the  souls  of  the  dead  in  some  way  reenter  and 
pervade  the  souls  of  the  living:  so  that  life  is 
always  the  life  of  living  creatures,  and  death  is 
always  our  affair.  This  bit,  I  admit,  is  bordering 
on  mysticism.  I'm  sorry,  because  I  don't  like 
mysticism.  It  has  no  trousers  and  no  trousers 
seat:  n'a  pas  de  quoi.  And  I  should  feel  so  un- 
comfortable if  I  put  my  hand  behind  me  and 
felt  an  absolute  blank. 

Meanwhile  a  long,  thin,  brown  caterpillar 
keeps  on  pretending  to  be  a  dead  thin  beech-twig, 
on  a  little  bough  at  my  feet.  He  had  got  his  hind 
feet  and  his  fore  feet  on  the  twig,  and  his  body 
looped  up  like  an  arch  in  the  air  between,  when 
a  fly  walked  up  the  twig  and  began  to  mount  the 
arch  of  the  imitator,  not  having  the  least  idea 
that  it  was  on  a  gentleman's  coat-tails.  The 
caterpillar  shook  his  stern,  and  the  fly  made  off 
as  if  it  had  seen  a  ghost.  The  dead  twig  and  the 
live  twig  now  remain  equally  motionless,  enjoy- 
ing their  different  ways.  And  when,  with  this 
very  pencil,  I  push  the  head  of  the  caterpillar  off 
from  the  twig,  he  remains  on  his  tail,  arched 
forward  in  air,  and  oscillating  unhappily,  like 
some  tiny  pendulum  ticking.  Ticking,  ticking 
in  mid-air,  arched  away  from  his  planted  tail. 


12  FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

Till  at  last,  after  a  long  minute  and  a  half,  he 
touches  the  twig  again,  and  subsides  into  twiggi- 
ness.  The  only  thing  is,  the  dead  beech-twig 
can't  pretend  to  be  a  wagging  caterpillar.  Yet 
how  the  two  commune!  However — we  have 
our  exits  and  our  entrances,  and  one  man  in  his 
time  plays  many  parts.  More  than  he  dreams 
of,  poor  darling.  And  I  am  entirely  at  a  loss  for 
a  moral  I 

Well,  then,  we  are  born.  I  suppose  that's  a 
safe  statement.  And  we  become  at  once  con- 
scious, if  we  weren't  so  before.  Nem  con.  And 
our  little  baby  body  is  a  little  functioning  organ- 
ism, a  little  developing  machine  or  instrument 
or  organ,  and  our  little  baby  mind  begins  to  stir 
with  all  our  wonderful  psychical  beginnings. 
And  so  we  are  in  bud. 

But  it  won't  do.  It  is  too  much  of  a  Pisgah 
sight.  We  overlook  too  much.  Descendez,  cher 
Mo'ise.  Vous  voyez  trop  loin.  You  see  too  far 
all  at  once,  dear  Moses.  Too  much  of  a  bird's- 
eye  view  across  the  Promised  Land  to  the  shore. 
Come  down,  and  walk  across,  old  fellow.  And 
you  won't  see  all  that  milk  and  honey  and  grapes 
the  size  of  duck's  eggs.  All  the  dear  little  bud- 
ding infant  with  its  tender  virginal  mind  and 
various  clouds  of  glory  instead  of  a  napkin.    Not 


INTRODUCTION  13 

at  all,  my  dear  chap.    No  such  luck  of  a  prom- 
ised land. 

Climb  down,  Pisgah,  and  go  to  Jericho. 
Allans,  there  is  no  road  yet,  but  we  are  all 
Aarons  with  rods  of  our  own. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   HOLY   FAMILY 

WE  are  all  very  pleased  with  Mr.  Einstein 
for  knocking  that  eternal  axis  out  of  the 
universe.  The  universe  isn't  a  spinning  v^heel. 
It  is  a  cloud  of  bees  flying  and  veering  round. 
Thank  goodness  for  that,  for  we  were  getting 
drunk  on  the  spinning  wheel. 

So  that  now  the  universe  has  escaped  from  the 
pin  which  was  pushed  through  it,  like  an  im- 
paled fly  vainly  buzzing:  now  that  the  multiple 
universe  flies  its  own  complicated  course  quite 
free,  and  hasn't  got  any  hub,  we  can  hope  also  to 
escape. 

We  won't  be  pinned  down,  either.  We  have 
no  one  law  that  governs  us.  For  me  there  is 
only  one  law:  I  am  7.  And  that  isn't  a  law,  it's 
just  a  remark.  One  is  one,  but  one  is  not  all 
alone.  There  are  other  stars  buzzing  in  the 
center  of  their  own  isolation.  And  there  is  no 
straight  path  between  them.  There  is  no 
straight  path  between  you  and  me,  dear  reader, 


THE  HOLY  FAMILY  15 

SO  don't  blame  me  if  my  words  fly  like  dust  into 
your  eyes  and  grit  between  your  teeth,  instead  of 
like  music  into  your  ears.  I  am  I,  but  also  you 
are  you,  and  we  are  in  sad  need  of  a  theory  of 
human  relativity.  We  need  it  much  more  than 
the  universe  does.  The  stars  know  how  to  prowl 
round  one  another  without  much  damage  done. 
But  you  and  I,  dear  reader,  in  the  first  convic- 
tion that  you  are  me  and  that  I  am  you,  owing 
to  the  oneness  of  mankind,  why,  we  are  always 
falling  foul  of  one  another,  and  chewing  each 
other's  fur. 

You  are  not  me,  dear  reader,  so  make  no  pre- 
tentions to  it.  Don't  get  alarmed  if  I  say  things. 
It  isn't  your  sacred  mouth  which  is  opening  and 
shutting.  As  for  the  profanation  of  your  sacred 
ears,  just  apply  a  little  theory  of  relativity,  and 
realize  that  what  I  say  is  not  what  you  hear,  but 
something  uttered  in  the  midst  of  my  isolation, 
and  arriving  strangely  changed  and  travel-worn 
down  the  long  curve  of  your  own  individual  cir- 
cumambient atmosphere.  I  may  say  Boh,  but 
heaven  alone  knows  what  the  goose  hears.  And 
you  may  be  sure  that  a  red  rag  is,  to  a  bull,  some- 
thing far  more  mysterious  and  complicated  than 
a  socialist's  necktie. 

So  I  hope  now  I  have  put  you  in  your  place, 


i6         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

dear  reader.  Sit  you  like  Watts'  Hope  on  your 
own  little  blue  globe,  and  I'll  sit  on  mine,  and 
we  won't  bump  into  one  another  if  we  can  help 
it.  You  can  twang  your  old  hopeful  lyre.  It 
may  be  music  to  you,  so  I  don't  blame  you.  It 
is  a  terrible  wowing  in  my  ears.  But  that  may 
be  something  in  my  individual  atmosphere ;  some 
strange  deflection  as  your  music  crosses  the  space 
between  us.  Certainly  I  never  hear  the  concert 
of  World  Regeneration  and  Hope  Revived 
Again  without  getting  a  sort  of  lock-jaw,  my 
teeth  go  so  keen  on  edge  from  the  twanging  har- 
mony. Still,  the  world-regenerators  may  really 
be  quite  excellent  performers  on  their  own  jews'- 
harps.    Blame  the  edginess  of  my  teeth. 

Now  I  am  going  to  launch  words  into  space, 
so  mind  your  cosmic  eye. 

As  I  said  in  my  small  but  naturally  immortal 
book,  "Psychoanalysis  and  the  Unconscious," 
there's  more  in  it  than  meets  the  eye.  There's 
more  in  you,  dear  reader,  than  meets  the  eye. 
What,  don't  you  believe  it?  Do  you  think  you're 
as  obvious  as  a  poached  egg  on  a  piece  of  toast, 
like  the  poor  lunatic?  Not  a  bit  of  it,  dear 
reader.  You've  got  a  solar  plexus,  and  a  lumbar 
ganglion  not  far  from  your  liver,  and  I'm  going 
to  tell  everybody.  Nothing  brings  a  man  home 
to  himself  like  telling  everybody.     And  I  will 


.       THE  HOLY  FAMILY  17 

drive  you  home  to  yourself,  do  you  hear? 
You've  been  poaching  in  my  private  atmospheric 
grounds  long  enough,  identifying  yourself  with 
me  and  me  with  everybody.  A  nice  row  there'd 
be  in  heaven  if  Aldebaran  caught  Sirius  by  the 
tail  and  said,  "Look  here,  you're  not  to  look  so 
green,  you  damm  dog-star!  It's  an  offense 
against  star-regulations." 

Which  reminds  me  that  the  Arabs  say  the 
shooting  stars,  meteorites,  are  starry  stones  which 
the  angels  fling  at  the  poaching  demons  whom 
they  catch  sight  of  prowling  too  near  the  pali- 
sades of  heaven.  I  must  say  I  like  Arab  angels. 
My  heaven  would  coruscate  like  a  Catherine 
wheel,  with  white-hot  star-stones.  Away,  you 
dog,  you  prowling  cur. — Got  him  under  the 
left  ear-hole,  Gabriel — !  See  him,  see  him, 
Michael?  That  hopeful  blue  devil!  Land  him 
one!    Biff  on  your  bottom,  you  hoper. 

But  I  wish  the  Arabs  wouldn't  entice  me,  or 
you,  dear  reader,  provoke  me  to  this.  I  feel  with 
you,  dear  reader,  as  I  do  with  a  deaf-man  when 
he  pushes  his  vulcanite  ear,  his  listening  ma- 
chine, towards  my  mouth.  I  want  to  shout  down 
the  telephone  ear-hole  all  kinds  of  improper 
things,  to  see  what  effect  they  will  have  on  the 
stupid  dear  face  at  the  end  of  the  coil  of  wire. 


i8         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

After  all,  words  must  be  very  different  after 
they've  trickled  round  and  round  a  long  wire 
coil.  Whatever  becomes  of  them!  And  I,  who 
am  a  bit  deaf  myself,  and  may  in  the  end  have  a 
deaf-machine  to  poke  at  my  friends,  it  ill  be- 
comes me  to  be  so  unkind,  yet  that's  how  I  feel. 
So  there  we  are. 

Help  me  to  be  serious,  dear  reader. 

In  that  little  book,  "Psychoanalysis  and  the 
Unconscious,"  I  tried  rather  wistfully  to  con- 
vince you,  dear  reader,  that  you  had  a  solar 
plexus  and  a  lumbar  ganglion  and  a  few  other 
things.  I  don't  know  why  I  took  the  trouble. 
If  a  fellow  doesn't  believe  he's  got  a  nose,  the 
best  way  to  convince  him  is  gently  to  waft  a  little 
pepper  into  his  nostrils.  And  there  was  I  paint- 
ing my  own  nose  purple,  and  wistfully  inviting 
you  to  look  and  believe.     No  more,   though. 

You've  got  first  and  foremost  a  solar  plexus, 
dear  reader;  and  the  solar  plexus  is  a  great  nerve 
center  which  lies  behind  your  stomach.  I  can't 
be  accused  of  impropriety  or  untruth,  because 
any  book  of  science  or  medicine  which  deals 
with  the  nerve-system  of  the  human  body  will 
show  it  to  you  quite  plainly.  So  don't  wriggle 
or  try  to  look  spiritual.  Because,  willy-nilly, 
you've  got  a  solar  plexus,  dear  reader,  among 


THE  HOLY  FAMILY  19 

other  things.  I'm  writing  a  good  sound  science 
book,  which  there's  no  gainsaying. 

Now,  your  solar  plexus,  most  gentle  of  read- 
ers, is  where  you  are  you.  It  is  your  first  and 
greatest  and  deepest  center  of  consciousness.  If 
you  want  to  know  how  conscious  and  when  con- 
scious, I  must  refer  you  *to  that  little  book, 
^Tsychoanalysis  and  the  Unconscious." 

At  your  solar  plexus  you  are  primarily  con- 
scious: there,  behind  you  stomach.  There 
you  have  the  profound  and  pristine  conscious 
awareness  that  you  are  you.  Don't  say  you 
haven't.  I  know  you  have.  You  might  as  well 
try  to  deny  the  nose  on  your  face.  There  is  your 
first  and  deepest  seat  of  awareness.  There  you 
are  triumphantly  aware  of  your  own  individual 
existence  in  the  universe.  Absolutely  there  is 
the  keep  and  central  stronghold  of  your  trium- 
phantly-conscious self.  There  you  are,  and  you 
know  it.  So  stick  out  your  tummy  gaily,  my 
dear,  with  a  Me  voila.  With  a  Here  I  am! 
With  an  Ecco  mi!  With  a  Da  bin  ich!  There 
you  are,  dearie. 

But  not  only  a  triumphant  awareness  that 
There  you  are.  An  exultant  awareness  also  that 
outside  this  quiet  gate,  this  navel,  lies  a  whole 
universe  on  which  you  can  lay  tribute.    Aha—- 


20         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

at  birth  you  closed  the  central  gate  for  ever. 
Too  dangerous  to  leave  it  open.  Too  near  the 
quick.  But  there  are  other  gates.  There  are 
eyes  and  mouths  and  ears  and  nostrils,  besides 
the  two  lower  gates  of  the  passionate  body,  and 
the  closed  but  not  locked  gates  of  the  breasts. 
Many  gates.  And  besides  the  actual  gates,  the 
marvelous  wireless  communication  between  the 
great  center  and  the  surrounding  or  contiguous 
world. 

Authorized  science  tells  you  that  this  first 
great  plexus,  this  all-potent  nerve-center  of  con- 
sciousness and  dynamic  life-activity  is  a  sym- 
pathetic center.  From  the  solar  plexus  as  from 
your  castle-keep  you  look  around  and  see  the  fair 
lands  smiling,  the  corn  and  fruit  and  cattle  of 
your  increase,  the  cottages  of  your  dependents 
and  the  halls  of  your  beloveds.  From  the  solar 
plexus  you  know  that  all  the  world  is  yours,  and 
all  is  goodly. 

This  is  the  great  center,  where  in  the  womb, 
your  life  first  sparkled  in  individuality.  This  is 
the  center  that  drew  the  gestating  maternal 
blood-stream  upon  you,  in  the  nine-months  lurk- 
ing, drew  it  on  you  for  your  increase.  This  is 
the  center  whence  the  navel-string  broke,  but 
where  the  invisible  string  of  dynamic  conscious- 


THE  HOLY  FAMILY  21 

ness,  like  a  dark  electric  current  connecting  you 
with  the  rest  of  life,  will  never  break  until  you 
die  and  depart  from  corporate  individuality. 

They  say,  by  the  way,  that  doctors  now  per- 
form a  little  operation  on  the  born  baby,  so  that 
no  more  navel  shows.  No  more  belly-buttons, 
dear  reader!  Lucky  I  caught  you  this  genera- 
tion, before  the  doctors  had  saved  your  appear- 
ances. Yet,  caro  mio,  whether  it  shows  or  not, 
there  you  once  had  immediate  connection  with 
the  maternal  blood-stream.  And,  because  the 
male  nucleus  which  derived  from  the  father 
still  lies  sparkling  and  potent  within  the  solar 
plexus,  therefore  that  great  nerve-center  of  you, 
still  has  immediate  knowledge  of  your  father, 
a  subtler  but  still  vital  connection.  We  call  it 
the  tie  of  blood.  So  be  it.  It  is  a  tie  of  blood. 
But  much  more  definite  than  we  imagine.  For 
true  it  is  that  the  one  bright  male  germ  which 
went  to  your  begetting  was  drawn  from  the 
blood  of  the  father.  And  true  it  is  that  that 
same  bright  male  germ  lies  unquenched  and 
unquenchable  at  the  center  of  you,  within  the 
famous  solar  plexus.  And  furthermore  true  is  it 
that  this  unquenched  father-spark  within  you 
sends  forth  vibrations  and  dark  currents  of  vital 
activity  all  the  time ;  connecting  direct  with  your 


22         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

father.  You  will  never  be  able  to  get  away  from 
it  while  you  live. 

The  connection  with  the  mother  may  be  more 
obvious.  Is  there  not  your  ostensible  navel, 
where  the  rupture  between  you  and  her  took 
place?  But  because  the  mother-child  relation 
is  more  plausible  and  flagrant,  is  that  any  rea- 
son for  supposing  it  deeper,  more  vital,  more  in- 
trinsic? Not  a  bit.  Because  if  the  large  parent 
mother-germ  still  lives  and  acts  vividly  and  mys- 
teriously in  the  great  fused  nucleus  of  your  solar 
plexus,  does  the  smaller,  brilliant  male-spark 
that  derived  from  your  father  act  any  less  viv- 
idly? By  no  means.  It  is  different — it  is  less 
ostensible.  It  may  be  even  in  magnitude  smaller. 
But  it  may  be  even  more  vivid,  even  more  in- 
trinsic. So  beware  how  you  deny  the  father- 
quick  of  yourself.  You  may  be  denying  the  most 
intrinsic  quick  of  all. 

In  the  same  way  it  follows  that,  since  brothers 
and  sisters  have  the  same  father  and  mother, 
therefore  in  every  brother  and  sister  there  is  a 
direct  communication  such  as  can  never  happen 
between  strangers.  The  parent  nuclei  do  not  die 
within  the  new  nucleus.  They  remain  there, 
marvelous  naked  sparkling  dynamic  life-centers, 
nodes,  well-heads  of  vivid  life  itself.    Therefore 


THE  HOLY  FAMILY  23 

in  every  individual  the  parent  nuclei  live,  and 
give  direction  connection,  blood  connection  we 
call  it,  with  the  rest  of  the  family.  It  is  blood 
connection.  For  the  fecundating  nuclei  are  the 
very  spark-essence  of  the  blood.  And  while  life 
lives  the  parent  nuclei  maintain  their  own  cen- 
trality  and  dynamic  effectiveness  within  the  solar 
plexus  of  the  child.  So  that  every  individual  has 
mother  and  father  both  sparkling  within  himself. 
But  this  is  rather  a  preliminary  truth  than  an 
intrinsic  truth.  The  intrinsic  truth  of  every 
individual  is  the  new  unit  of  unique  individuality 
which  emanates  from  the  fusion  of  the  parent 
nuclei.  This  is  the  incalculable  and  intangible 
Holy  Ghost  each  time — each  individual  his  own 
Holy  Ghost.  When,  at  the  moment  of  concep- 
tion, the  two  parent  nuclei  fuse  to  form  a  new 
unit  of  life,  then  takes  place  the  great  mystery 
of  creation.  A  new  individual  appears — not  the 
result  of  the  fusion  merely.  Something  more. 
The  quality  of  individuality  cannot  be  derived. 
The  new  individual,  in  his  singleness  of  self,  is  a 
perfectly  new  whole.  He  is  not  a  permutation 
and  combination  of  old  elements,  transferred 
through  the  parents.  No,  he  is  som^ething  unde- 
rived  and  utterly  unprecedented,  unique,  a  new 
soul. 


24         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

This  quality  of  pure  individuality  is,  however, 
only  the  one  supreme  quality.  It  consummates 
all  other  qualities,  but  does  not  consume  them. 
All  the  others  are  there,  all  the  time.  And  only 
at  his  maximum  does  an  individual  surpass  all 
his  derivative  elements,  and  become  purely  him- 
self. And  most  people  never  get  there.  In  his 
own  pure  individuality  a  man  surpasses  his 
father  and  mother,  and  is  utterly  unknown  to 
them.  "Woman,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee?" 
But  this  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  within  him 
lives  the  mother-quick  and  the  father-quick,  and 
that  though  in  his  wholeness  he  is  rapt  away 
beyond  the  old  mother-father  connections,  they 
are  still  there  within  him,  consummated  but  not 
consumed.  Nor  does  it  alter  the  fact  that  very 
few  people  surpass  their  parents  nowadays,  and 
attain  any  individuality  beyond  them.  Most 
men  are  half-born  slaves :  the  little  soul  they  are 
born  with  just  atrophies,  and  merely  the  organ- 
ism emanates,  the  new  self,  the  new  soul,  the  new 
swells  into  manhood,  like  big  potatoes. 

So  there  we  are.  But  considering  man  at  his 
best,  he  is  at  the  start  faced  with  the  great  prob- 
lem. At  the  very  start  he  has  to  undertake  his 
tripartite  being,  the  mother  within  him,  the 
father  within  him,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  self 


THE  HOLY  FAMILY  25 

which  he  is  supposed  to  consummate,  and  which 
mostly  he  doesn't. 

And  there  it  is,  a  hard  physiological  fact.  At 
the  moment  of  our  conception,  the  father  nucleus 
fuses  with  the  mother  nucleus,  and  the  wonder 
emanates,  the  new  self,  the  new  soul,  the  new 
individual  cell.  But  in  the  new  individual  cell 
the  father-germ  and  the  mother-germ  do  not 
relinquish  their  identity.  There  they  remain 
still,  incorporated  and  never  extinguished.  And 
so,  the  blood-stream  of  race  is  one  stream,  for 
ever.  But  the  moment  the  mystery  of  pure  indi- 
vidual newness  ceased  to  be  enacted  and  fulfilled, 
the  blood-stream  would  dry  up  and  be  finished. 
Mankind  would  die  out. 

Let  us  go  back  then  to  the  solar  plexus.  There 
sparkle  the  included  mother-germ  and  father- 
germ,  giving  us  direct,  immediate  blood-bonds, 
family  connection.  The  connection  is  as  direct 
and  as  subtle  as  between  the  Marconi  stations, 
two  great  wireless  stations.  A  family,  if  you 
like,  is  a  group  of  wireless  stations,  all  adjusted 
to  the  same,  or  very  much  the  same  vibration. 
All  the  time  they  quiver  with  the  interchange, 
there  is  one  long  endless  flow  of  vitalistic  com- 
munication between  members  of  one  family,  a 
long,  strange  rapport,  a  sort  of  life-unison.    It  is 


26         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

a  ripple  of  life  through  many  bodies  as  through 
one  body.  But  all  the  time  there  is  the  jolt,  the 
rupture  of  individualism,  the  individual  assert- 
ing himself  beyond  all  ties  or  claims.  The  high- 
est goal  for  every  man  is  the  goal  of  pure  indi- 
vidual being.  But  it  is  a  goal  you  cannot  reach 
by  the  mere  rupture  of  all  ties.  A  child  isn't 
born  by  being  torn  from  the  womb.  When  it  is 
born  by  natural  process  that  is  rupture  enough. 
But  even  then  the  ties  are  not  broken.  They  are 
only  subtilized. 

From  the  solar  plexus  first  of  all  pass  the  great 
vitalistic  communications  between  child  and  par- 
ents, the  first  interplay  of  primal,  pre-mental 
knowledge  and  sympathy.  It  is  a  great  subtle 
interplay,  and  from  this  interplay  the  child  is 
built  up,  body  and  psyche.  Impelled  from  the 
primal  conscious  center  in  the  abdomen,  the 
child  seeks  the  mother,  seeks  the  breast,  opens  a 
blind  mouth  and  gropes  for  the  nipple.  Not 
mentally  directed  and  yet  certainly  directed. 
Directed  from  the  dark  pre-mind  center  of  the 
solar  plexus.  From  this  center  the  child  seeks, 
the  mother  knows.  Hence  the  true  mindlessness 
of  the  pristine,  healthy  mother.  She  does  not 
need  to  think,  mentally  to  know.    She  knows  so 


THE  HOLY  FAMILY  27 

profoundly  and  actively  at  the  great  abdominal 
life-center. 

But  if  the  child  thus  seeks  the  mother,  does  it 
then  know  the  mother  alone?  To  an  infant  the 
mother  is  the  whole  universe.  Yet  the  child 
needs  more  than  the  mother.  It  needs  as  well  the 
presence  of  men,  the  vibration  from  the  present 
body  of  the  man.  There  may  not  be  any  actual, 
palpable  connection.  But  from  the  great  volun- 
tary center  in  the  man  pass  unknowable  com- 
munications and  untenable  nourishment  of  the 
stream  of  manly  blood,  rays  which  we  cannot  see, 
and  which  so  far  we  have  refused  to  know,  but 
none  the  less  essential,  quickening  dark  rays 
which  pass  from  the  great  dark  abdominal  life- 
center  in  the  father  to  the  corresponding  center  in 
the  child.  And  these  rays,  these  vibrations,  are 
not  like  the  mother-vibrations.  Far,  far  from  it. 
They  do  not  need  the  actual  contact,  the  handling 
and  the  caressing.  On  the  contrary,  the  true 
male  instinct  is  to  avoid  physical  contact  with  a 
baby.  It  may  not  need  even  actual  presence.  But 
present  or  absent,  there  should  be  between  the 
baby  and  the  father  that  strange,  intangible  com- 
munication, that  strange  pull  and  circuit  such  as 
the  magnetic  pole  exercises  upon  a  needle,  a 
vitalistic  pull  and  flow  which  lays  all  the  life- 


28         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

plasm  of  the  baby  into  the  line  of  vital  quicken- 
ing, strength,  knowing.  And  any  lack  of  this 
vital  circuit,  this  vital  interchange  between 
father  and  child,  man  and  child,  means  an  inev- 
itable impoverishment  to  the  infant. 

The  child  exists  in  the  interplay  of  two  great 
life-waves,  the  womanly  and  the  male.  In  ap- 
pearance, the  mother  is  everything.  In  truth, 
the  father  has  actively  very  little  part.  It  does 
not  matter  much  if  he  hardly  sees  his  child.  Yet 
see  it  he  should,  sometimes,  and  touch  it  some- 
times, and  renew  with  it  the  connection,  the  life- 
circuit,  not  allow  it  to  lapse,  and  so  vitally  starve 
his  child. 

But  remember,  dear  reader,  please,  that  there 
is  not  the  slightest  need  for  you  to  believe  me,  or 
even  read  me.  Remember,  it's  just  your  own 
affair.    Don't  implicate  me. 


CHAPTER  III 

PLEXUSES,    PLANES   AND   SO  ON 

THE  primal  consciousness  in  man  is  pre- 
mental,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  cogni- 
tion. It  is  the  same  as  in  the  animals.  And  this 
pre-mental  consciousness  remains  as  long  as  we 
live  the  powerful  root  and  body  of  our  conscious- 
ness. The  mind  is  but  the  last  flower,  the 
cul  de  sac. 

The  first  seat  of  our  primal  consciousness  is 
the  solar  plexus,  the  great  nerve-center  situated 
behind  the  stomach.  From  this  center  we  are 
first  dynamically  conscious.  For  the  primal 
consciousness  is  always  dynamic,  and  never,  like 
mental  consciousness,  static.  Thought,  let  us 
say  what  we  will  about  its  magic  powers,  is 
instrumental  only,  the  soul's  finest  instrument 
for  the  business  of  living.  Thought  is  just  a 
means  to  action  and  living.  But  life  and  action 
take  rise  actually  at  the  great  centers  of  dynamic 
consciousness. 

The  solar  plexus,  the  greatest  and  most  impor- 

29 


30         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

tant  center  of  our  dynamic  consciousness,  is  a 
sympathetic  center.  At  this  main  center  of  your 
first-mind  we  know  as  we  can  never  mentally 
know.  Primarily  we  know,  each  man,  each  liv- 
ing creature  knows,  profoundly  and  satisfacto- 
rily and  without  question,  that  I  am  I.  This  root 
of  all  knowledge  and  being  is  established  in  the 
solar  plexus;  it  is  dynamic,  pre-mental  knowl- 
edge, such  as  cannot  be  transferred  into  thought. 
Do  not  ask  me  to  transfer  the  pre-mental  dy- 
namic knowledge  into  thought.  It  cannot  be 
done.  The  knowledge  that  I  am  I  can  never  be 
thought :  only  known. 

This  being  the  very  first  term  of  our  life- 
knowledge,  a  knowledge  established  physically 
and  psychically  the  moment  the  two  parent  nu- 
clei fused,  at  the  moment  of  the  conception,  it 
remains  integral  as  a  piece  of  knowledge  in  every 
subsequent  nucleus  derived  from  this  one  orig- 
inal. But  yet  the  original  nucleus,  formed  from 
the  two  parent  nuclei  at  our  conception,  remains 
always  primal  and  central,  and  is  always  the 
original  fount  and  home  of  the  first  and  supreme 
knowledge  that  /  am  I.  This  original  nucleus 
is  embodied  in  the  solar  plexus. 

But  the  original  nucleus  divides.  The  first 
division,  as  science  knows,  is  a  division  of  recoil. 


PLEXUSES,  PLANES  AND  SO  ON  31 

From  the  perfect  oneing  of  the  two  parent  nu- 
clei in  the  egg-cell  results  a  recoil  or  new  asser- 
tion. That  which  was  perfect  one  now  divides 
again,  and  in  the  recoil  becomes  again  two. 

This  second  nucleus,  the  nucleus  born  of  re- 
coil, is  the  nuclear  origin  of  all  the  great  nuclei 
of  the  voluntary  system,  which  are  the  nuclei  of 
assertive  individualism.  And  it  remains  central 
in  the  adult  human  body  as  it  was  in  the  egg-cell. 
In  the  adult  human  body  the  first  nucleus  of  in- 
dependence, first-born  from  the  great  original 
nucleus  of  our  conception,  lies  always  established 
in  the  lumbar  ganglion.  Here  we  have  our  pos- 
itive center  of  independence,  in  a  multifarious 
universe. 

At  the  solar  plexus,  the  dynamic  knowledge  is 
this,  that  /  am  /.  The  solar  plexus  is  the  center 
of  all  the  sympathetic  system.  The  great  prime 
knowledge  is  sympathetic  in  nature.  I  am  I,  in 
vital  centrality.  I  am  I,  the  vital  center  of  all 
things.  I  am  I,  the  clew  to  the  whole.  All  is  one 
with  me.    It  is  the  one  identity. 

But  at  the  lumbar  ganglion,  which  is  the 
center  of  separate  identity,  the  knowledge  is  of  a 
diflPerent  mode,  though  the  term  is  the  same.  At 
the  lumbar  ganglion  I  know  that  I  am  I,  in  dis- 
tinction from  a  whole  universe,  which  is  not  as  I 


32         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

am.  This  is  the  first  tremendous  flash  of  knowl- 
edge of  singleness  and  separate  identity.  I  am  I, 
not  because  I  am  at  one  with  all  the  universe, 
but  because  I  am  other  than  all  the  universe.  It 
is  my  distinction  from  all  the  rest  of  things  which 
makes  me  myself.  Because  I  am  set  utterly  apart 
and  distinguished  from  all  that  is  the  rest  of  the 
universe,  therefore  I  am  7.  And  this  root  of  our 
knowledge  in  separateness  lies  rooted  all  the  time 
in  the  lumbar  ganglion.  It  is  the  second  term  of 
our  dynamic  psychic  existence. 

It  is  from  the  great  sympathetic  center  of  the 
solar  plexus  that  the  child  rejoices  in  the  mother 
and  in  its  own  blissful  centrality,  its  unison  with 
the  as  yet  unknown  universe.  Look  at  the  pic- 
tures of  Madonna  and  Child,  and  you  will  even 
see  it.  It  is  from  this  center  that  it  draws  all 
things  unto  itself,  winningly,  drawing  love  for 
the  soul,  and  actively  drawing  in  milk.  The 
same  center  controls  the  great  intake  of  love  and 
of  milk,  of  psychic  and  of  physical  nourishment. 

And  it  is  from  the  great  voluntary  center  of 
the  lumbar  ganglion  that  the  child  asserts  its 
distinction  from  the  mother,  the  single  identity 
of  its  own  existence,  and  its  power  over  its  sur- 
roundings. From  this  center  issues  the  violent 
little  pride  and  lustiness  which  kicks  with  glee, 


PLEXUSES,  PLANES  AND  SO  ON  33 

or  crows  with  tiny  exultance  in  its  own  being,  or 
which  claws  the  breast  with  a  savage  little 
rapacity,  and  an  incipient  masterfulness  of 
which  every  mother  is  aware.  This  incipient 
mastery,  this  sheer  joy  of  a  young  thing  in  its 
own  single  existence,  the  marvelous  playfulness 
of  early  youth,  and  the  roguish  mockery  of  the 
mother's  love,  as  well  as  the  bursts  of  temper  and 
rage,  all  belong  to  infancy.  And  all  this  flashes 
spontaneously,  must  flash  spontaneously  from  the 
first  great  center  of  independence,  the  powerful 
lumbar  ganglion,  great  dynamic  center  of  all  the 
voluntary  system,  of  all  the  spirit  of  pride  and 
joy  in  independent  existence.  And  it  is  from 
this  center  too  that  the  milk  is  urged  away  down 
the  infant  bowels,  urged  away  towards  excretion. 
The  motion  is  the  same,  but  here  it  applies  to 
the  material,  not  to  the  vital  relation.  It  is  from 
the  lumbar  ganglion  that  the  dynamic  vibrations 
are  emitted  which  thrill  from  the  stomach  and 
bowels,  and  promote  the  excremental  function 
of  digestion.  It  is  the  solar  plexus  which  con- 
trols the  assimilatory  function  in  digestion. 

So,  in  the  first  division  of  the  egg-cell  is  set  up 
the  first  plane  of  psychic  and  physical  life,  re- 
maining radically  the  same  throughout  the 
whole   existence   of   the   individual.    The   two 


34         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

original  nuclei  of  the  egg-cell  remain  the  same 
two  original  nuclei  within  the  corpus  of  the 
adult  individual.  Their  psychic  and  their  phys- 
ical dynamic  is  the  same  in  the  solar  plexus  and 
lumbar  ganglion  as  in  the  two  nuclei  of  the  egg- 
cell.  The  first  great  division  in  the  tgg  remains 
always  the  same,  the  unchanging  great  division 
in  the  psychic  and  the  physical  structure;  the  un- 
changing great  division  in  knowledge  and  func- 
tion. It  is  a  division  into  polarized  duality,  psy- 
chical and  physical,  of  the  human  being.  It  is 
the  great  vertical  division  of  the  egg-cell,  and  of 
the  nature  of  man. 

Then,  this  division  having  taken  place,  there 
is  a  new  thrill  of  conjunction  or  collision  be- 
tween the  divided  nuclei,  and  at  once  the  second 
birth  takes  place.  The  two  nuclei  now  split 
horizontally.  There  is  a  horizontal  division 
across  the  whole  egg-cell,  and  the  nuclei  are  now 
four,  two  above,  and  two  below.  But  those  be- 
low retain  their  original  nature,  those  above  are 
new  in  nature.  And  those  above  correspond 
again  to  those  below. 

In  the  developed  child,  the  great  horizontal 
division  of  the  egg-cell,  resulting  in  four  nuclei, 
this  remains  the  same.  The  horizontal  division- 
wall  is  the  diaphragm.    The  two  upper  nuclei 


PLEXUSES,  PLANES  AND  SO  ON  35 

are  the  two  great  nerve-centers,  the  cardiac 
plexus  and  the  thoracic  ganglion.  We  have 
again  a  sympathetic  center  primal  in  activity 
and  knowledge,  and  a  corresponding  voluntary 
center.  In  the  center  of  the  breast,  the  cardiac 
plexus  acts  as  the  great  sympathetic  mode  of  new 
dynamic  activity,  new  dynamic  consciousness. 
And  near  the  spine,  by  the  wall  of  the  shoulders, 
the  thoracic  ganglion  acts  as  the  powerful  volun- 
tary center  of  separateness  and  power,  in  the 
same  vertical  line  as  the  lumbar  ganglion,  but 
horizontally  so  different. 

Now  we  must  change  our  whole  feeling.  We 
must  put  off  the  deep  way  of  understanding 
which  belongs  to  the  lower  body  of  our  nature, 
and  transfer  ourselves  into  the  upper  plane, 
where  being  and  functioning  are  different. 

At  the  cardiac  plexus,  there  in  the  center  of 
the  breast,  we  have  now  a  new  great  sun  of 
knowledge  and  being.  Here  there  is  no  more 
of  self.  Here  there  is  no  longer  the  dark,  ex- 
ultant knowledge  that  I  am  I.  A  change  has 
come.  Here  I  know  no  more  of  myself.  Here 
I  am  not.  Here  I  only  know  the  delightful  rev- 
elation that  you  are  you.  The  wonder  is  no 
longer  within  me,  my  own  dark,  centrifugal, 
exultant  self.    The  wonder  is  without  me.    The 


36         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

wonder  is  outside  me.  And  I  can  no  longer 
exult  and  know  myself  the  dark,  central  sun  of 
the  universe.  Now  I  look  with  wonder,  with 
tenderness,  with  joyful  yearning  towards  that 
which  is  outside  me,  beyond  me,  not  me.  Behold, 
that  which  was  once  negative  has  now  become 
the  only  positive.  The  other  being  is  now  the 
great  positive  reality,  I  myself  am  as  nothing. 
Positivity  has  changed  places. 

If  we  want  to  see  the  portrayed  look,  then  we 
must  turn  to  the  North,  to  the  fair,  wondering, 
blue-eyed  infants  of  the  Northern  masters.  They 
seem  so  frail,  so  innocent  and  wondering,  touch- 
ing outwards  to  the  mystery.  They  are  not  the 
same  as  the  Southern  child,  nor  the  opposite. 
Their  whole  life  mystery  is  different.  Instead 
of  consummating  all  things  within  themselves, 
as  the  dark  little  Southern  infants  do,  the  North- 
ern Jesus-childreh  reach  out  delicate  little  hands 
of  wondering  innocence  towards  delicate,  flower- 
reverential  mothers.  Compare  a  Botticelli  Ma- 
donna, with  all  her  wounded  and  abnegating  sen- 
suality, with  a  Hans  Memling  Madonna,  whose 
soul  is  pure  and  only  reverential.  Beyond  me 
is  the  mystery  and  the  glory,  says  the  Northern 
mother :  let  me  have  no  self,  let  me  only  seek  that 
which  is  all-pure,  all-wonderful.    But  the  South- 


PLEXUSES,  PLANES  AND  SO  ON  37 

ern  mother  says :  This  is  mine,  this  is  mine,  this 
is  my  child,  my  wonder,  my  master,  my  lord,  my 
scourge,  my  own. 

From  the  cardiac  plexus  the  child  goes  forth 
in  bliss.  It  seeks  the  revelation  of  the  unknown. 
It  wonderingly  seeks  the  mother.  It  opens  its 
small  hands  and  spreads  its  small  fingers  to  touch 
her.  And  bliss,  bliss,  bliss,  it  meets  the  wonder 
in  mid-air  and  in  mid-space  it  finds  the  loveliness 
of  the  mother's  face.  It  opens  and  shuts  its  little 
fingers  with  bliss,  it  laughs  the  wonderful,  self- 
less laugh  of  pure  baby-bliss,  in  the  first  ecstasy 
of  finding  all  its  treasure,  groping  upon  it  and 
finding  it  in  the  dark.  It  opens  wide,  child-wide 
eyes  to  see,  to  see.  But  it  cannot  see.  It  is 
puzzled,  it  wrinkles  its  face.  But  when  the 
mother  puts  her  face  quite  near,  and  laughs  and 
coos,  then  the  baby  trembles  with  an  ecstasy  of 
love.  The  glamour,  the  wonder,  the  treasure 
beyond.  The  great  uplift  of  rapture.  All  this 
surges  from  that  first  center  of  the  breast,  the 
sun  of  the  breast,  the  cardiac  plexus. 

And  from  the  same  center  acts  the  great  func- 
tion of  the  heart  and  breath.  Ah,  the  aspiration, 
the  aspiration,  like  a  hope,  like  a  yearning  con- 
stant and  unfailing  with  which  we  take  in  breath. 
When  we  breathe,  when  we  take  in  breath,  it  is 


38         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

not  as  when  we  take  in  food.  When  we  breathe 
in  we  aspire,  we  yearn  towards  the  heaven  of  air 
and  light.  And  when  the  heart  dilates  to  draw 
in  the  stream  of  dark  blood,  it  opens  its  arms  as 
to  a  beloved.  It  dilates  with  reverent  joy,  as  a 
host  opening  his  doors  to  an  honored  guest, 
whom  he  delights  to  serve :  opening  his  doors  to 
the  wonder  which  comes  to  him  from  beyond, 
and  without  which  he  were  nothing. 

So  it  is  that  our  heart  dilates,  our  lungs  ex- 
pand. They  are  bidden  by  that  great  and  myste- 
rious impulse  from  the  cardiac  plexus,  which 
bids  them  seek  the  mystery  and  the  fulfillment 
of  the  beyond.  They  seek  the  beyond,  the  air  of 
the  sky,  the  hot  blood  from  the  dark  under- 
world.   And  so  we  live. 

And  then,  they  relax,  they  contract.  They  are 
driven  by  the  opposite  motion  from  the  power- 
ful voluntary  center  of  the  thoracic  ganglion., 
That  which  was  drawn  in,  was  invited,  is  now 
relinquished,  allowed  to  go  forth,  negatively. 
Not  positively  dismissed,  but  relinquished. 

There  is  a  wonderful  complementary  duality 
between  the  voluntary  and  the  sympathetic  ac- 
tivity on  the  same  plane.  But  between  the  two 
planes,  upper  and  lower,  there  is  a  further  dual- 
ism, still  more  startling,  perhaps.    Between  the 


PLEXUSES,  PLANES  AND  SO  ON  39 

dark,  glowing  first  term  of  knowledge  at  the 
solar  plexus:  I  am  I,  all  is  one  in  me;  and  the 
first  term  of  volitional  knowledge :  /  am  myself, 
and  these  others  are  not  as  I  am;  —  there  is  a 
world  of  difference.  But  when  the  world  changes 
again,  and  on  the  upper  plane  we  realize  the 
wonder  of  other  things,  the  difference  is  almost 
shattering.  The  thoracic  ganglion  is  a  ganglion 
of  power.  When  the  child  in  its  delicate  bliss 
seeks  the  mother  and  finds  her  and  is  added  on  to 
her,  then  it  fulfills  itself  in  the  great  upper  sym- 
pathetic mode.  But  then  it  relinquishes  her.  It 
ceases  to  be  aware  of  her.  And  if  she  tries  to 
force  its  love  to  play  upon  her  again,  like  light 
revealing  her  to  herself,  then  the  child  turns 
away.  Or  it  will  lie,  and  look  at  her  with  the 
strange,  odd,  curious  look  of  knowledge,  like  a 
little  imp  who  is  spying  her  out.  This  is  the 
curious  look  that  many  mothers  cannot  bear.  In- 
voluntarily it  arouses  a  sort  of  hate  in  them — the 
look  of  scrutinizing  curiosity,  apart,  and  as  it 
were  studying,  balancing  them  up.  Yet  it  is  a 
look  which  comes  into  every  child^s  eyes.  It  is 
the  reaction  of  the  great  voluntary  plexus  be- 
tween the  shoulders.  The  mother  is  suddenly 
set  apart,  as  an  object  of  curiosity, -coldly,  some- 


40         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

times  dreamily,  sometimes  puzzled,  sometimes 
mockingly  observed. 

Again,  if  a  mother  neglect  her  child,  it  cries, 
it  weeps  for  her  love  and  attention.  Its  pitiful 
lament  is  one  of  the  forms  of  compulsion  from 
the  upper  center.  This  insistence  on  pity,  on 
love,  is  quite  different  from  the  rageous  weep- 
ing, which  is  compulsion  from  the  lower  center, 
below  the  diaphragm.  Again,  some  children 
just  drop  everything  they  can  lay  hands  on  over 
the  edge  of  their  crib,  or  their  table.  They  drop 
everything  out  of  sight.  And  then  they  look  up 
with  a  curious  look  of  negative  triumph.  This 
is  again  a  form  of  recoil  from  the  upper  center, 
the  obliteration  of  the  thing  which  is  outside. 
And  here  a  child  is  acting  quite  differently  from 
the  child  who  joyously  smashes.  The  desire  to 
smash  comes  from  the  lower  centers. 

We  can  quite  well  recognize  the  will  exerted 
from  the  lower  center.  We  call  it  headstrong 
temper  and  masterfulness.  But  the  peculiar 
will  of  the  upper  center — the  sort  of  nervous, 
critical  objectivity,  the  deliberate  forcing  of 
sympathy,  the  play  upon  pity  and  tenderness,  the 
plaintive  bullying  of  love,  or  the  benevolent 
bullying  of  love — these  we  don't  care  to  recog- 
nize.    They  are  the  extravagance  of  spiritual 


PLEXUSES,  PLANES  AND  SO  ON  41 

wilL  But  in  its  true  harmony  the  thoracic  gan- 
glion is  a  center  of  happier  activity:  of  real, 
eager  curiosity,  of  the  delightful  desire  to  pick 
things  to  pieces,  and  the  desire  to  put  them  to- 
gether again,  the  desire  to  "find  out,"  and  the  de- 
sire to  invent:  all  this  arises  on  the  upper  plane, 
at  the  volitional  center  of  the  thoracic  ganglion. 


CHAPTER  IV 

TREES  AND  BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS 

OH,  damn  the  miserable  baby  with  its  com- 
plicated ping-pong  table  of  an  uncon- 
scious. I'm  sure,  dear  reader,  you'd  rather  have 
to  listen  to  the  brat  howling  in  its  crib  than  to 
me  expounding  its  plexuses.  As  for  "mixing 
those  babies  up,"  I'd  mix  him  up  like  a  shot  if 
I'd  anything  to  mix  him  with.  Unfortunately 
he's  my  own  anatomical  specimen  of  a  pickled 
rabbit,  so  there's  nothing  to  be  done  with  the  bits. 

But  he  gets  on  my  nerves.  I  come  out  sol- 
emnly with  a  pencil  and  an  exercise  book,  and 
take  my  seat  in  all  gravity  at  the  foot  of  a  large 
fir-tree,  and  wait  for  thoughts  to  come,  gnawing 
like  a  squirrel  on  a  nut.    But  the  nut's  hollow. 

I  think  there  are  too  many  trees.  They  seem  to 
crowd  round  and  stare  at  me,  and  I  feel  as  if 
they  nudged  one  another  when  I'm  not  looking. 
I  can  feel  them  standing  there.  And  they  won't 
let  me  get  on  about  the  baby  this  morning.  Just 
their  cussedness.  I  felt  they  encouraged  me  like 
a  harem  of  wonderful  silent  wives,  yesterday. 

42 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  43 

It  is  half  rainy  too — the  wood  so  damp  and 
still  and  so  secret,  in  the  remote  morning  air. 
Morning,  with  rain  in  the  sky,  and  the  torest 
subtly  brooding,  and  me  feeling  no  bigger  than 
a  pea-bug  between  the  roots  of  my  fir.  The 
trees  seem  so  much  bigger  than  me,  so  much 
stronger  in  life,  prowling  silent  around.  I  seem 
to  feel  them  moving  and  thinking  and  prowling, 
and  they  overwhelm  me.  Ah,  well,  the  only 
thing  is  to  give  way  to  them. 

It  is  the  edge  of  the  Black  Forest — sometimes 
the  Rhine  far  off,  on  its  Rhine  plain,  like  a  bit  of 
magnesium  ribbon.  But  not  to-day.  To-day  only 
trees,  and  leaves,  and  vegetable  presences.  Huge 
straight  fir-trees,  and  big  beech-trees  sending  riv- 
ers of  roots  into  the  ground.  And  cuckoos,  like 
noise  falling  in  drops  off  the  leaves.  And  me,  a 
fool,  sitting  by  a  grassy  wood-road  with  a  pencil 
and  a  book,  hoping  to  write  more  about  that 
baby. 

Never  mind.  I  listen  again  for  noises,  and  I 
smell  the  damp  moss.  The  looming  trees,  so 
straight.  And  I  listen  for  their  silence.  Big, 
tall-bodied  trees,  with  a  certain  magnificent 
cruelty  about  them.  Or  barbarity.  I  don't  know 
why  I  should  say  cruelty.  Their  magnificent, 
strong,  round  bodies!  It  almost  seems  I  can  hear 


44         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

the  slow,  powerful  sap  drumming  in  their 
trunks.  Great  full-blooded  trees,  with  strange 
tree-blood  in  them,  soundlessly  drumming. 

Trees  that  have  no  hands  and  faces,  no  eyes. 
Yet  the  powerful  sap-scented  blood  roaring  up 
the  great  columns.  A  vast  individual  life,  and  an 
overshadowing  will.  The  will  of  a  tree.  Some- 
thing that  frightens  you. 

Suppose  you  want  to  look  a  tree  in  the  face? 
You  can't.  It  hasn't  got  a  face.  You  look  at  the 
strong  body  of  a  trunk :  you  look  above  you  into 
the  matted  body-hair  of  twigs  and  boughs:  you 
see  the  soft  green  tips.  But  there  are  no  eyes  to 
look  into,  you  can't  meet  its  gaze.  You  keep  on 
looking  at  it  in  part  and  parcel. 

It's  no  good  looking  at  a  tree,  to  know  it.  The 
only  thing  is  to  sit  among  the  roots  and  nestle 
against  its  strong  trunk,  and  not  bother.  That's 
how  I  write  all  about  these  planes  and  plexuses, 
between  the  toes  of  a  tree,  forgetting  myself 
against  the  great  ankle  of  the  trunk.  And  then, 
as  a  rule,  as  a  squirrel  is  stroked  into  its  wicked- 
ness by  the  faceless  magic  of  a  tree,  so  am  I 
usually  stroked  into  forgetfulness,  and  into 
scribbling  this  book.    My  tree-book,  really. 

I  come  so  well  to  understand  tree-worship. 
All  the  old  Aryans  worshiped  the  tree.      My 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  45 

ancestors.  The  tree  of  life.  The  tree  of  knowl- 
edge. Well,  one  is  bound  to  sprout  out  some 
time  or  other,  chip  of  the  old  Aryan  block.  I 
can  so  well  understand  tree-worship.  And  fear 
the  deepest  motive. 

Naturally.  This  marvelous  vast  individual 
without  a  face,  without  lips  or  eyes  or  heart. 
This  towering  creature  that  never  had  a  face. 
Here  am  I  between  his  toes  like  a  pea-bug,  and 
him  noiselessly  over-reaching  me.  And  I  feel 
his  great  blood-jet  surging.  And  he  has  no  eyes. 
But  he  turns  two  ways.  He  thrusts  himself  tre- 
mendously down  to  the  middle  earth,  where  dead 
men  sink  in  darkness,  in  the  damp,  dense  under- 
soil, and  he  turns  himself  about  in  high  air. 
Whereas  we  have  eyes  on  one  side  of  our  head 
only,  and  only  grow  upwards. 

Plunging  himself  down  into  the  black  humus, 
with  a  root's  gushing  zest,  where  we  can  only 
rot  dead;  and  his  tips  in  high  air,  where  we  can 
only  look  up  to.  So  vast  and  powerful  and  ex- 
ultant in  his  two  directions.  And  all  the  time, 
he  has  no  face,  no  thought:  only  a  huge,  savage, 
thoughtless  soul.  Where  does  he  even  keep  his 
soul? — Where  does  anybody? 

A  huge,  plunging,  tremendous  soul.  I  would 
like  to  be  a  tree  for  a  while.    The  great  lust  of 


46         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

roots.  Root-lust.  And  no  mind  at  all.  He 
towers,  and  I  sit  and  feel  safe.  I  like  to  feel  him 
towering  round  me.  I  used  to  be  afraid.  I  used 
to  fear  their  lust,  their  rushing  black  lust.  But 
now  I  like  it,  I  worship  it.  I  always  felt  them 
huge  primeval  enemies.  But  now  they  are 
my  only  shelter  and  strength.  I  lose  my- 
self among  the  trees.  I  am  so  glad  to  be 
with  them  in  their  silent,  intent  passion,  and 
their  great  lust.  They  feed  my  soul.  But  I  can 
understand  that  Jesus  was  crucified  on  a  tree. 

And  I  can  so  well  understand  the  Romans, 
their  terror  of  the  bristling  Hercynian  wood. 
Yet  when  you  look  from  a  height  down  upon  the 
rolling  of  the  forest — this  Black  Forest — it  is  as 
suave  as  a  rolling,  oily  sea.  Inside  only,  it 
bristles  horrific.     And  it  terrified  the  Romans. 

The  Romans!  They  too  seem  very  near. 
Nearer  than  Hindenburg  or  Foch  or  even  Napo- 
leon. When  I  look  across  the  Rhine  plain,  it  is 
Rome,  and  the  legionaries  of  the  Rhine  that  my 
soul  notices.  It  must  have  been  wonderful  to 
come  from  South  Italy  to  the  shores  of  this  sea- 
like forest :  this  dark,  moist  forest,  with  its  enor- 
mously powerful  intensity  of  tree  life.  Now  I 
know,  coming  myself  from  rock-dry  Sicily,  open 
to  the  day. 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  47 

The  Romans  and  the  Greeks  found  everything 
human.  Everything  had  a  face,  and  a  human 
voice.  Men  spoke,  and  their  fountains  piped  an 
answer. 

But  when  the  legions  crossed  the  Rhine  they 
found  a  vast  impenetrable  life  which  had  no 
voice.  They  met  the  faceless  silence  of  the  Black 
Forest.  This  huge,  huge  wood  did  not  answer 
when  they  called.  Its  silence  was  too  crude  and 
massive.  And  the  soldiers  shrank:  shrank  before 
the  trees  that  had  no  faces,  and  no  answer.  A 
vast  array  of  non-human  life,  darkly  self-suffi- 
cient, and  bristling  with  indomitable  energy. 
The  Hercynian  wood,  not  to  be  fathomed.  The 
enormous  power  of  these  collective  trees, 
stronger  in  their  somber  life  even  than  Rome. 

No  wonder  the  soldiers  were  terrified.  No 
wonder  they  thrilled  with  horror  when,  deep  in 
the  woods,  they  found  the  skulls  and  trophies  of 
their  dead  comrades  upon  the  trees.  The  trees 
had  devoured  them:  silently,  in  mouthfuls,  and 
left  the  white  bones.  Bones  of  the  mindful  Ro- 
mans— and  savage,  preconscious  trees,  indom- 
itable. The  true  German  has  something  of  the 
sap  of  trees  in  his  veins  even  now:  and  a  sort  of 
pristine  savageness,  like  trees,  helpless,  but  most 
powerful,  under  all  his  mentality.    He  is  a  tree- 


48         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

soul,  and  his  gods  are  not  human.  His  instinct 
still  is  to  nail  skulls  and  trophies  to  the  sacred 
tree,  deep  in  the  forest.  The  tree  of  life  and 
death,  tree  of  good  and  evil,  tree  of  abstraction 
and  of  immense,  mindless  life;  tree  of  every- 
thing except  the  spirit,  spirituality. 

But  after  bone-dry  Sicily,  and  after  the  gib- 
bering of  myriad  people  all  rattling  their  per- 
sonalities, I  am  glad  to  be  with  the  profound  in- 
difference of  faceless  trees.  Their  rudimentari- 
ness  cannot  know  why  we  care  for  the  things  we 
care  for.  They  have  no  faces,  no  minds  and 
bowels:  only  deep,  lustful  roots  stretching  in 
earth,  and  vast,  lissome  life  in  air,  and  primeval 
individuality.  You  can  sacrifice  the  whole  of 
your  spirituality  on  their  altar  still.  You  can 
nail  your  skull  on  their  limbs.  They  have  no 
skulls,  no  minds  nor  faces,  they  can't  make  eyes 
of  love  at  you.  Their  vast  life  dispenses  with  all 
this.    But  they  will  live  you  down. 

The  normal  life  of  one  of  these  big  trees  is 
about  a  hundred  years.  So  the  Herr  Baron 
told  me. 

One  of  the  few  places  that  my  soul  will  haunt, 
when  I  am  dead,  will  be  this.  Among  the  trees 
here  near  Ebersteinburg,  where  I  have  been 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  49 

alone  and  written  this  book.    I  can't  leave  these 
trees.    They  have  taken  some  of  my  soul. 


Excuse  my  digression,  gentle  reader.  At  first 
I  left  it  out,  thinking  we  might  not  see  wood  for 
trees.  But  it  doesn't  much  matter  what  we  see. 
It's  nice  just  to  look  round,  anywhere. 

So  there  are  two  planes  of  being  and  con- 
sciousness and  two  modes  of  relation  and  of  func- 
tion. We  will  call  the  lower  plane  the  sensual, 
the  upper  the  spiritual.  The  terms  may  be  un- 
wise, but  we  can  think  of  no  other. 

Please  read  that  again,  dear  reader;  you'll  be 
a  bit  dazzled,  coming  out  of  the  wood. 

It  is  obvious  that  from  the  time  a  child  is  born, 
or  conceived,  it  has  a  permanent  relation  with 
the  outer  universe,  a  relation  in  the  two  modes, 
not  one  mode  only.  There  are  two  ways  of  love, 
two  ways  of  activity  in  independence.  And  there 
needs  some  sort  of  equilibrium  between  the  two 
modes.  In  the  same  way,  in  physical  function 
there  is  eating  and  drinking,  and  excrementation, 
on  the  lower  plane;  and  respiration  and  heart- 
beat on  the  upper  plane. 

Now  the  equilibrium  to  be  established  is  four- 
fold. There  must  be  a  true  equilibrium  between 
what  we  eat  and  what  we  reject  again  by  excre- 


50         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

tion:  likewise  between  the  systole  and  diastole 
of  the  heart,  the  inspiration  and  expiration  of 
our  breathing.  Suffice  to  say  the  equilibrium  is 
never  quite  perfect.  Most  people  are  either  too 
fat  or  too  thin,  too  hot  or  too  cold,  too  slow  or  too 
quick.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  an  actual  norm, 
a  living  norm.  A  norm  is  merely  an  abstraction, 
not  a  reality. 

The  same  on  the  psychical  plane.  We  either 
love  too  much,  or  impose  our  will  too  much,  are 
too  spiritual  or  too  sensual.  There  is  not  and 
cannot  be  any  actual  norm  of  human  conduct. 
All  depends,  first,  on  the  unknown  inward  need 
within  the  very  nuclear  centers  of  the  individual 
himself,  and  secondly  on  his  circumstance.  Some 
men  must  be  too  spiritual,  some  must  be  too  sen- 
sual. Some  must  be  too  sympathetic,  and  some 
must  be  too  proud.  We  have  no  desire  to  say 
what  men  ought  to  be.  We  only  wish  to  say 
there  are  all  kinds  of  ways  of  being,  and  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  human  perfection.  No  man  can 
be  anything  more  than  just  himself,  in  genuine 
living  relation  to  all  his  surroundings.  But  that 
which  /  am,  when  I  am  myself,  will  certainly 
be  anathema  to  those  who  hate  individual  integ- 
rity, and  want  to  swarm.  And  that  which  I,  be- 
ing myself,  am  in  myself,  may  make  the  hair 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  51 

bristle  with  rage  on  a  man  who  is  also  himself, 
but  very  different  from  me.  Then  let  it  bristle. 
And  if  mine  bristle  back  again,  then  let  us,  if  we 
must,  fly  at  one  another  like  two  enraged  men.  It 
is  how  it  should  be.  WeVe  got  to  learn  to  live 
from  the  center  of  our  own  responsibility  only, 
and  let  other  people  do  the  same. 

To  return  to  the  child,  however,  and  his  devel- 
opment on  his  two  planes  of  consciousness. 
There  is  all  the  time  a  direct  dynamic  connec- 
tion between  child  and  mother,  child  and  father 
also,  from  the  start.  It  is  a  connection  on  two 
planes,  the  upper  and  lower.  From  the  lower 
sympathetic  center  the  profound  intake  of  love 
or  vibration  from  the  living  co-respondent  out- 
side. From  the  upper  sympathetic  center  the 
outgoing  of  devotion  and  the  passionate  vibra- 
tion of  given  love,  given  attention.  The  two 
sympathetic  centers  are  always,  or  should  always 
be,  counterbalanced  by  their  corresponding  vol- 
untary centers.  From  the  great  voluntary  gan- 
glion of  the  lower  plane,  the  child  is  self-willed, 
independent,  and  masterful. 

In  the  activity  of  this  center  a  boy  refuses  to 
be  kissed  and  pawed  about,  maintaining  his 
proud  independence  like  a  little  wild  animal. 
From  this  center  he  likes  to  command  and  to 


52         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

receive  obedience.  From  this  center  likewise 
he  may  be  destructive  and  defiant  and  reckless, 
determined  to  have  his  own  way  at  any  cost. 

From  this  center,  too,  he  learns  to  use  his  legs. 
The  motion  of  walking,  like  the  motion  of 
breathing,  is  twofold.  First,  a  sympathetic 
cleaving  to  the  earth  with  the  foot:  then  the  vol- 
untary rejection,  the  spurning,  the  kicking  away, 
the  exultance  in  power  and  freedom. 

From  the  upper  voluntary  center  the  child 
watches  persistently,  wilfully,  for  the  attention 
of  the  mother:  to  be  taken  notice  of,  to  be 
caressed,  in  short  to  exist  in  and  through  the 
mother's  attention.  From  this  center,  too,  he 
coldly  refuses  to  notice  the  mother,  when  she  in- 
sists on  too  much  attention.  This  cold  refusal 
is  different  from  the  active  rejection  of  the  lower 
center.  It  is  passive,  but  cold  and  negative.  It 
is  the  great  force  of  our  day.  From  the  ganglion 
of  the  shoulders,  also,  the  child  breathes  and  his 
heart  beats.  From  the  same  center  he  learns  the 
first  use  of  his  arms.  In  the  gesture  of  sympathy, 
from  the  upper  plane,  he  embraces  his  mother 
with  his  arms.  In  the  motion  of  curiosity,  or 
interest,  which  derives  from  the  thoracic  gan- 
glion, he  spreads  his  fingers,  touches,  feels,  ex- 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  53 

plores.    In  the  motion  of  rejection  he  drops  an 
undesired  object  deliberately  out  of  sight. 

And  then,  when  the  four  centers  of  what  we 
call  the  first  field  of  consciousness  are  fully 
active,  then  it  is  that  the  eyes  begin  to  gather 
their  sight,  the  mouth  to  speak,  the  ears  to  awake 
to  their  intelligent  hearings;  all  as  a  result  of  the 
great  fourfold  activity  of  the  first  dynamic  field 
of  consciousness.  And  then  also,  as  a  result,  the 
mind  wakens  to  its  impressions  and  to  its  incip- 
ient control.  For  at  first  the  control  is  non- 
mental,  even  non-cerebral.  The  brain  acts  only 
as  a  sort  of  switchboard. 

The  business  of  the  father,  in  all  this  incipient 
child-development,  is  to  stand  outside  as  a  final 
authority  and  make  the  necessary  adjustments. 
Where  there  is  too  much  sympathy,  then  the 
great  voluntary  centers  of  the  spine  are  weak, 
the  child  tends  to  be  delicate.  Then  the  father 
by  instinct  supplies  the  roughness,  the  sternness 
which  stiffens  in  the  child  the  centers  of  resist- 
ance and  independence,  right  from  the  very  ear- 
liest days.  Often,  for  a  mere  infant,  it  is  the 
father's  fierce  or  stern  presence,  the  vibration  of 
his  voice,  which  starts  the  frictional  and  inde- 
pendent activity  of  the  great  voluntary  ganglion 


54         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

and  gives  the  first  impulse  to  the  independence 
which  later  on  is  life  itself. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  the  father,  from  his 
distance,  supports,  protects,  nourishes  his  child, 
and  it  is  ultimately  on  the  remote  but  powerful 
father-love  that  the  infant  rests,  in  a  rest  which 
is  beyond  mother-love.  For  in  the  male  the 
dominant  centers  are  naturally  the  volitional 
centers,  centers  of  responsibility,  authority,  and 
care. 

It  is  the  father's  business,  again,  to  maintain 
some  sort  of  equilibrium  between  the  two  modes 
of  love  in  his  infant.  A  mother  may  wish  to 
bring  up  her  child  from  the  lovely  upper  centers 
only,  from  the  centers  of  the  breast,  in  the  mode 
of  what  we  call  pure  or  spiritual  love.  Then  the 
child  will  be  all  gentle,  all  tender  and  tender- 
radiant,  always  enfolded  with  gentleness  and  for- 
bearance, always  shielded  from  grossness  or  pain 
or  roughness.  Now  the  father's  instinct  is  to  be 
rough  and  crude,  good-naturedly  brutal  with  the 
child,  calling  the  deeper  centers,  the  sensual 
centers,  into  play.  'What  do  you  want?  My 
watch?  Well,  you  can't  have  it,  do  you  see,  be- 
cause it's  mine."  Not  a  lot  of  explanations  of  the 
"You  see,  darling."  No  such  nonsense. — Or  if 
a  child  wails  unnecessarily  for  its  mother,  the 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  55 

father  must  be  the  check.  "Stop  your  noise,  you 
little  brat!  What  ails  you,  you  whiner?"  And 
if  children  be  too  sensitive,  too  sympathetic,  then 
it  will  do  the  child  no  harm  if  the  father  oc- 
casionally throws  the  cat  out  of  the  window,  or 
kicks  the  dog,  or  raises  a  storm  in  the  house. 
Storms  there  must  be.  And  if  the  child  is  old 
enough  and  robust  enough,  it  can  occasionally 
have  its  bottom  soundly  spanked — by  the  father, 
if  the  mother  refuses  to  perform  that  most  neces- 
sary duty.  For  a  child's  bottom  is  made  oc- 
casionally to  be  spanked.  The  vibration  of  the 
spanking  acts  direct  upon  the  spinal  nerve-sys- 
tem, there  is  a  direct  reciprocity  and  reaction, 
the  spanker  transfers  his  wrath  to  the  great  will- 
centers  in  the  child,  and  these  will-centers  react 
intensely,  are  vivified  and  educated. 

On  the  other  hand,  given  a  mother  who  is  too 
generally  hard  or  indifferent,  then  it  rests  with 
the  father  to  provide  the  delicate  sympathy  and 
the  refined  discipline.  Then  the  father  must 
show  the  tender  sensitiveness  of  the  upper  mode. 
The  sad  thing  to-day  is  that  so  few  mothers  have 
any  deep  bowels  of  love — or  even  the  breast  of 
love.  What  they  have  is  the  benevolent  spiritual 
will,  the  will  of  the  upper  self.  But  the  will  is 
not  love.     And  benevolence  in  a  parent  is  a 


56         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

poison.  It  is  bullying.  In  these  circumstances 
the  father  must  give  delicate  adjustment,  and, 
above  all,  some  warm,  native  love  from  the 
richer  sensual  self. 

The  question  of  corporal  punishment  is  im- 
portant. It  is  no  use  roughly  smacking  a  shrink- 
ing, sensitive  child.  And  yet,  if  a  child  is  too 
shrinking,  too  sensitive,  it  may  do  it  a  world  of 
good  cheerfully  to  spank  its  posterior.  Not  bru- 
tally, not  cruelly,  but  with  real  sound,  good- 
natured  exasperation.  And  let  the  adult  take  the 
full  responsibility,  half  humorously,  without 
apology  or  explanation.  Let  us  avoid  self-jus- 
tification at  all  costs.  Real  corporal  punishments 
apply  to  the  sensual  plane.  The  refined  punish- 
ments of  the  spiritual  mode  are  usually  much 
more  indecent  and  dangerous  than  a  good 
smack.  The  pained  but  resigned  disapprobation 
of  a  mother  is  usually  a  very  bad  thing,  much 
worse  than  the  father's  shouts  of  rage.  And  send- 
ings  to  bed,  and  no  dessert  for  a  week,  and  so  on, 
are  crueller  and  meaner  than  a  bang  on  the  head. 
When  a  parent  gives  his  boy  a  beating,  there  is 
a  living  passionate  interchange.  But  in  these 
refined  punishments,  the  parent  suffers  nothing 
and  the  child  is  deadened.  The  bullying  of  the 
refined,  benevolent  spiritual  will  is  simply  vit- 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  57 

riol  to  the  soul.  Yet  parents  administer  it  with 
all  the  righteousness  of  virtue  and  good  inten- 
tion, sparing  themselves  perfectly. 

The  point  is  here.  If  a  child  makes  you  so 
that  you  really  want  to  spank  it  soundly,  then 
soundly  spank  the  brat.  But  know  all  the  time 
what  you  are  doing,  and  always  be  responsible 
for  your  anger.  Never  be  ashamed  of  it,  and 
never  surpass  it.  The  flashing  interchange  of 
anger  between  parent  and  child  is  part  of  the 
responsible  relationship,  necessary  to  growth. 
Again,  if  a  child  offends  you  deeply,  so  that  you 
really  can't  communicate  with  it  any  more,  then, 
while  the  hurt  is  deep,  switch  off  your  connec- 
tion from  the  child,  cut  off  your  correspondence, 
your  vital  communion,  and  be  alone.  But  never 
persist  in  such  a  state  beyond  the  time  when  your 
deep  hurt  dies  down.  The  only  rule  is,  do  what 
you  really,  impulsively,  wish  to  do.  But  always 
act  on  your  own  responsibility  sincerely.  And 
have  the  courage  of  your  own  strong  emotion. 
They  enrichen  the  child's  soul. 

For  a  child's  primary  education  depends  al- 
most entirely  on  its  relation  to  its  parents, 
brothers,  and  sisters.  Between  mother  and  child, 
father  and  child,  the  law  is  this:  I,  the  mother, 
am  myself  alone :  the  child  is  itself  alone.    But 


58         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

there  exists  between  us  a  vital  dynamic  relation, 
for  which  I,  being  the  conscious  one,  am  basic- 
ally responsible.  So,  as  far  as  possible,  there 
must  be  in  me  no  departure  from  myself,  lest  I 
injure  the  preconscious  dynamic  relation.  I  must 
absolutely  act  according  to  my  own  true  sponta- 
neous feeling.  But,  moreover,  I  must  also  have 
wisdom  for  myself  and  for  my  child.  Always, 
always  the  deep  wisdom  of  responsibility.  And 
always  a  brave  responsibility  for  the  soul's  own 
spontaneity.  Love — what  is  love?  We'd  better 
get  a  new  idea.  Love  is,  in  all,  generous  impulse 
— even  a  good  spanking.  But  wisdom  is  some- 
thing else,  a  deep  collectedness  in  the  soul,  a  deep 
abiding  by  my  own  integral  being,  which  makes 
me  responsible,  not  for  the  child,  but  for  my 
certain  duties  towards  the  child,  and  for  main- 
taining the  dynamic  flow  between  the  child  and 
myself  as  genuine  as  possible :  that  is  to  say,  not 
perverted  by  ideals  or  by  my  will. 

Most  fatal,  most  hateful  of  all  things  is  bully- 
ing. But  what  is  bullying?  It  is  a  desire  to 
superimpose  my  own  will  upon  another  person. 
Sensual  bullying  of  course  is  fairly  easily  de- 
tected. What  is  more  dangerous  is  ideal  bully-, 
ing.  Bullying  people  into  what  is  ideally  good 
for  them.    I  embrace  for  example  an  ideal,  and 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  59 

I  seek  to  enact  this  ideal  in  the  person  of  another. 
This  is  ideal  bullying.  A  mother  says  that  life 
should  be  all  love,  all  delicacy  and  forbearance 
and  gentleness.  And  she  proceeds  to  spin  a  hate- 
ful sticky  web  of  permanent  forbearance,  gentle- 
ness, hushedness  around  her  naturally  passionate 
and  hasty  child.  This  so  foils  the  child  as  to 
make  him  half  imbecile  or  criminal.  I  may  have 
ideals  if  I  like — even  of  love  and  forbearance 
and  meekness.  But  I  have  no  right  to  ask 
another  to  have  these  ideals.  And  to  impose  any 
ideals  upon  a  child  as  it  grows  is  almost  criminal. 
It  results  in  impoverishment  and  distortion  and 
subsequent  deficiency.  In  our  day,  most  danger- 
ous is  the  love  and  benevolence  ideal.  It  results 
in  neurasthenia,  which  is  largely  a  dislocation  or 
collapse  of  the  great  voluntary  centers,  a  de- 
rangement of  the  will.  It  is  in  us  an  insistence 
upon  the  one  life-mode  only,  the  spiritual  mode. 
It  is  a  suppression  of  the  great  lower  centers,  and 
a  living  a  sort  of  half-life,  almost  entirely  from 
the  upper  centers.  Thence,  since  we  live  ter- 
ribly and  exhaustively  from  the  upper  centers, 
there  is  a  tendency  now  towards  pthisis  and  neu- 
rasthenia of  the  heart.  The  great  sympathetic 
center  of  the  breast  becomes  exhausted,  the 
lungs,  burnt  by  the  over-insistence  of  one  way 


6o         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

of  life,  become  diseased,  the  heart,  strained  in 
one  mode  of  dilation,  retaliates.  The  powerful 
lower  centers  are  no  longer  fully  active,  partic- 
ularly the  great  lumbar  ganglion,  which  is  the 
clue  to  our  sensual  passionate  pride  and  inde- 
pendence, this  ganglion  is  atrophied  by  suppres- 
sion. And  it  is  this  ganglion  which  holds  the 
spine  erect.  So,  weak-chested,  round-shoul- 
dered, we  stoop  hollowly  forward  on  ourselves. 
It  is  the  result  of  the  all-famous  love  and  char- 
ity ideal,  an  ideal  now  quite  dead  in  its  sym- 
pathetic activity,  but  still  fixed  and  determined 
in  its  voluntary  action. 

Let  us  beware  and  beware,  and  beware  of  hav- 
ing a  high  ideal  for  ourselves.  But  particularly 
let  us  beware  of  having  an  ideal  for  our  chil- 
dren. So  doing,  we  damn  them.  All  we  can 
have  is  wisdom.  And  wisdom  is  not  a  theory,  it 
is  a  state  of  soul.  It  is  the  state  wherein  we 
know  our  wholeness  and  the  complicate,  mani- 
fold nature  of  our  being.  It  is  the  state  wherein 
we  know  the  great  relations  which  exist  between 
us  and  our  near  ones.  And  it  is  the  state  which 
accepts  full  responsibility,  first  for  our  own 
souls,  and  then  for  the  living  dynamic  relations 
wherein  we  have  our  being.  It  is  no  use  expect- 
ing the  other  person  to  know.    Each  must  know 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  6i 

for  himself.  But  nowadays  men  have  even  a 
stunt  of  pretending  that  children  and  idiots  alone 
know  best.  This  is  a  pretty  piece  of  sophistry, 
and  criminal  cowardice,  trying  to  dodge  the  life- 
responsibility  which  no  man  or  woman  can 
dodge  without  disaster. 

The  only  thing  is  to  be  direct.  If  a  child  has 
to  swallow  castor-oil,  then  say:  ^'Child,  youVe 
got  to  swallow  this  castor-oil.  It  is  necessary 
for  your  inside.  I  say  so  because  it  is  true.  So 
open  your  mouth."  Why  try  coaxing  and  logic 
and  tricks  with  children?  Children  are  more 
sagacious  than  we  are.  They  twig  soon  enough 
if  there  is  a  flaw  in  our  own  intention  and  our 
own  true  spontaneity.  And  they  play  up  to  our 
bit  of  falsity  till  there  is  hell  to  pay. 

^'You  love  mother,  don't  you,  dear?" — ^Just  a 
piece  of  indecent  trickery  of  the  spiritual  will. 
The  great  emotions  like  love  are  unspoken. 
Speaking  them  is  a  sign  of  an  indecent  bullying 
will. 

"Poor  pussy!    You  must  love  poor  pussy!" 

What  cant!  What  sickening  cant!  An  appeal 
to  love  based  on  false  pity.  That's  the  way  to 
inculcate  a  filthy  pharisaic  conceit  into  a  child. — 
If  the  child  ill-treats  the  cat,  say: 

"Stop  mauling  that  cat.    It's  got  its  own  life 


62         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

to  live,  so  let  it-live  it."  Then  if  the  brat  per- 
sists, give  tit  for  tat. 

'What,  you  pull  the  cat's  tail!  Then  I'll  pull 
your  nose,  to  see  how  you  like  it."  And  give  his 
nose  a  proper  hard  pinch. 

Children  must  pull  the  cat's  tail  a  little.  Chil- 
dren must  steal  the  sugar  sometimes.  They  must 
occasionally  spoil  just  the  things  one  doesn't 
want  them  to  spoil.  And  they  must  occasionally 
tell  stories — tell  a  lie.  Circumstances  and  life 
are  such  that  we  must  all  sometimes  tell  a  lie: 
just  as  we  wear  trousers,  because  we  don't  choose 
that  everybody  shall  see  our  nakedness.  Moral- 
ity is  a  delicate  act  of  adjustment  on  the  soul's 
part,  not  a  rule  or  a  prescription.  Beyond  a  cer- 
tain point  the  child  shall  not  pull  the  cat's  tail, 
or  steal  the  sugar,  or  spoil  the  furniture,  or  tell 
lies.  But  I'm  afraid  you  can't  fix  this  certain 
soul's  humor.  And  so  it  must.  If  at  a  sudden 
point  you  fly  into  a  temper  and  thoroughly  beat 
the  boy  for  hardly  touching  the  cat — ^well,  that's 
life.  All  you've  got  to  say  to  him  is:  "There, 
that'll  serve  you  for  all  the  times  you  have  pulled 
her  tail  and  hurt  her."  And  he  will  feel  out- 
raged, and  so  will  you.  But  what  does  it  matter? 
Children  have  an  infinite  understanding  of  the 
soul's  passionate  variabilities,  and  forgive  even  a 


BABIES  AND  PAPAS  AND  MAMAS  63 

real  injustice,  if  it  was  spontaneous  and  not  in- 
tentional. They  know  we  aren't  perfect.  What 
they  don't  forgive  us  is  if  we  pretend  we  are: 
or  if  we  bully. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  FIVE  SENSES 

SCIENCE  is  wretched  in  its  treatment  of  the 
human  body  as  a  sort  of  complex  mechan- 
ism made  up  of  numerous  little  machines  work- 
ing automatically  in  a  rather  unsatisfactory  rela- 
tion to  one  another.  The  body  is  the  total  ma- 
chine; the  various  organs  are  the  included 
machines;  and  the  whole  thing,  given  a  start  at 
birth,  or  at  conception,  trundles  on  by  itself.  The 
only  god  in  the  machine,  the  human  will  or  in- 
telligence, is  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
machine. 

Such  is  the  orthodox  view.  Soul,  when  it  is 
allowed  an  existence  at  all,  sits  somewhat 
vaguely  within  the  machine,  never  defined.  If 
anything  goes  wrong  with  the  machine,  why,  the 
soul  is  forgotten  instantly.  We  summon  the 
arch-mechanic  of  our  day,  the  medicine-man. 
And  a  marvelous  earnest  fraud  he  is,  doing  his 
best.  He  is  really  wonderful  as  a  mechanic  of 
the  human  system.    But  the  life  within  us  fails 

64 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  65 

more  and  more,  while  we  marvelously  tinker  at 
the  engines.     Doctors  are  not  to  blame. 

It  is  obvious  that,  even  considering  the  human 
body  as  a  very  delicate  and  complex  machine, 
you  cannot  keep  such  a  machine  running  for  one 
day  without  most  exact  central  control.  Still 
more  is  it  impossible  to  consider  the  automatic 
evolution  of  such  a  machine.  When  did  any 
machine,  even  a  single  spinning-wheel,  automat- 
ically evolve  itself?  There  was  a  god  in  the 
machine  before  the  machine  existed. 

So  there  we  are  with  the  human  body.  There 
must  have  been,  and  must  be  a  central  god  in  the 
machine  of  each  animate  corpus.  The  little  soul 
of  the  beetle  makes  the  beetle  toddle.  The  little 
soul  of  the  homo  sapiens  sets  him  on  his  two  feet. 
Don't  ask  me  to  define  the  soul.  You  might  as 
well  ask  a  bicycle  to  define  the  young  damsel 
who  so  whimsically  and  so  god-like  pedals  her 
way  along  the  highroad.  A  young  lady  skelter- 
ing off  on  her  bicycle  to  meet  her  young  man — 
why,  what  could  the  bicycle  make  of  such  a  mys- 
tery, if  you  explained  it  till  doomsday.  Yet  the 
bicycle  wouldn't  be  spinning  from  Streatham  to 
Croydon  by  itself. 

So  we  may  as  well  settle  down  to  the  little  god 
in  the  machine.    We  may  as  well  call  it  the  indi- 


66         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

vidual  soul,  and  leave  it  there.  It's  as  far  as  the 
bicycle  would  ever  get,  if  it  had  to  define  Made- 
moiselle. But  be  sure  the  bicycle  would  not  deny 
the  existence  of  the  young  miss  who  seats  herself 
in  the  saddle.  Not  like  us,  who  try  to  pretend 
there  is  no  one  in  the  saddle.  Why  even  the  sun 
would  no  more  spin  without  a  rider  than  would 
a  cycle-pedal.  But,  since  we  have  innumerable 
planets  to  reckon  with,  in  the  spinning  we  must 
not  begin  to  define  the  rider  in  terms  of  our  own 
exclusive  planet.  Nevertheless,  rider  there  is: 
even  a  rider  of  the  many-wheeled  universe. 

But  let  us  leave  the  universe  alone.  It  is  too 
big  a  bauble  for  me. — Revenons. — At  the  start 
of  me  there  is  me.  There  is  a  mysterious  little 
entity  which  is  my  individual  self,  the  god  who 
builds  the  machine  and  then  makes  his  gay  ex- 
cursion of  seventy  years  within  it.  Now  we  are 
talking  at  the  moment  about  the  machine.  For 
the  moment  we  are  the  bicycle,  and  not  the 
feather-brained  cyclist.  So  that  all  we  can  do 
is  to  define  the  cyclist  in  terms  of  ourself.  A 
bicycle  could  say:  Here,  upon  my  leather  saddle, 
rests  a  strange  and  animated  force,  which  I  call 
the  force  of  gravity,  as  being  the  one  great  force 
which  controls  my  universe.  And  yet,  on  second 
thoughts,   I  must  modify  myself.     This  great 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  67 

force  of  gravity  is  not  always  in  the  saddle. 
Sometimes  it  just  is  not  there — and  I  lean 
strangely  against  a  wall.  I  have  been  even 
known  to  turn  upside  down,  with  my  wheels  in 
the  air;  spun  by  the  same  mysterious  Miss.  So 
that  I  must  introduce  a  theory  of  Relativity. 
However,  mostly,  when  I  am  awake  and  alive, 
she  is  in  the  saddle;  or  it  is  in  the  saddle,  the 
mysterious  force.  And  when  it  is  in  the  saddle, 
then  two  subsidiary  forces  plunge  and  claw  upon 
my  two  pedals,  plunge  and  claw  with  inestimable 
power.  And  at  the  same  time,  a  kind  and  myste- 
rious force  sways  my  head-stock,  sways  most  in- 
calculably, and  governs  my  whole  motion.  This 
force  is  not  a  driving  force,  but  a  subtle  directing 
force,  beneath  whose  grip  my  bright  steel  body 
is  flexible  as  a  dipping  highroad.  Then  let  me 
not  forget  the  sudden  clutch  of  arrest  upon  my 
hurrying  wheels.  Oh,  this  is  pain  to  me!  While 
I  am  rushing  forward,  surpassing  myself  in  an 
elan  vital,  suddenly  the  awful  check  grips  my 
back  wheel,  or  my  front  wheel,  or  both.  Sud- 
denly there  is  a  fearful  arrest.  My  soul  rushes 
on  before  my  body,  I  feel  myself  strained,  torn 
back.  My  fibers  groan.  Then  perhaps  the  ten- 
sion relaxes. 

So  the  bicycle  will  continue  to  babble  about 


68         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

itself.  And  it  will  inevitably  wind  up  with  a 
philosophy.  "Oh,  if  only  the  great  and  divine 
force  rested  for  ever  upon  my  saddle,  and  if  only 
the  mysterious  will  which  sways  my  steering 
gear  remained  in  place  for  ever:  then  my  pedals 
would  revolve  of  themselves,  and  never  cease, 
and  no  hideous  brake  should  tear  the  perpetuity 
of  my  motions.  Then,  oh  then  I  should  be  im- 
mortal. I  should  leap  through  the  world  for 
ever,  and  spin  to  infinity,  till  I  was  identified 
with  the  dizzy  and  timeless  cycle-race  of  the 
stars  and  the  great  sun.  .  .  ." 

Poor  old  bicycle.  The  very  thought  is  enough 
to  start  a  philanthropic  society  for  the  preven- 
tion of  cruelty  to  bicycles. 

Well,  then,  our  human  body  is  the  bicycle. 
And  our  individual  and  incomprehensible  self  is 
the  rider  thereof.  And  seeing  that  the  universe 
is  another  bicycle  riding  full  tilt,  we  are  bound 
to  suppose  a  rider  for  that  also.  But  we  needn't 
say  what  sort  of  rider.  When  I  see  a  cockroach 
scuttling  across  the  floor  and  turning  up  its  tail 
I  stand  affronted,  and  think :  A  rum  sort  of  rider 
you  must  have.  YouVe  no  business  to  have  such 
a  rider,  do  you  hear? — And  when  I  hear  the  mo- 
notonous and  plaintive  cuckoo  in  the  June  woods, 
I  think:  Who  the  devil  made  that  clock? — ^And 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  69 

when  I  see  a  politician  making  a  fiery  speech  on 
a  platform,  and  the  crowd  gawping,  I  think: 
Lord,  save  me — they've  all  got  riders.  But  Holy 
Moses!  you  could  never  guess  what  was  coming. 
— And  so  I  shouldn't  like,  myself,  to  start  guess- 
ing about  the  rider  of  the  universe.  I  am  all  too 
flummoxed  by  the  masquerade  in  the  tourney 
round  about  me. 

We  ourselves  then:  wisdom,  like  charity,  be- 
gins at  home.  We've  each  of  us  got  a  rider  in 
the  saddle:  an  individual  soul.  Mostly  it  can't 
ride,  and  can't  steer,  so  mankind  is  like  squad- 
rons of  bicycles  running  amok.  We  should 
every  one  fall  ofif  if  we  didn't  ride  so  thick  that 
we  hold  each  other  up.     Horrid  nightmare! 

As  for  myself,  I  have  a  horror  of  riding  en 
bloc.  So  I  grind  away  uphill,  and  sweat  my  guts 
out,  as  they  say. 

Well,  well — my  body  is  my  bicycle :  the  whole 
middle  of  me  is  the  saddle  where  sits  the  rider 
of  my  soul.  And  my  front  wheel  is  the  cardiac 
plane,  and  my  back  wheel  is  the  solar  plexus. 
And  the  brakes  are  the  voluntary  ganglia.  And 
the  steering  gear  is  my  head.  And  the  right 
and  left  pedals  are  the  right  and  left  dynamics 
of  the  body,  in  some  way  corresponding  to  the 
sympathetic  and  voluntary  division. 


70         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

So  that  now  I  know  more  or  less  how  my 
rider  rides  me,  and  from  what  centers  controls 
me.  That  is,  I  know  the  points  of  vital  contact 
between  my  rider  and  my  machine :  between  my 
invisible  and  my  visible  self.  I  don't  attempt  to 
say  what  is  my  rider.  A  bicycle  might  as  well 
try  to  define  its  young  Miss  by  wriggling  its 
handle-bars  and  ringing  its  bell. 

However,  having  more  or  less  determined  the 
four  primary  motions,  we  can  see  the  further 
unfolding.  In  a  child,  the  solar  plexus  and  the 
cardiac  plexus,  with  corresponding  voluntary 
ganglia,  are  awake  and  active.  From  these 
centers  develop  the  great  functions  of  the  body. 

As  we  have  seen,  it  is  the  solar  plexus,  with 
the  lumbar  ganglion,  which  controls  the  great 
dynamic  system,  the  functioning  of  the  liver  and 
the  kidneys.  Any  excess  in  the  sympathetic 
dynamism  tends  to  accelerate  the  action  of  the 
liver,  to  cause  fever  and  constipation.  Any  col- 
lapse of  the  sympathetic  dynamism  causes  ane- 
mia. The  sudden  stimulating  of  the  voluntary 
center  may  cause  diarrhoea,  and  so  on.  But  all 
this  depends  so  completely  on  the  polarized  flow 
between  the  individual  and  the  correspondent, 
between  the  child  and  mother,  child  and  father, 
child  and  sisters  or  brothers  or  teacher,  or  cir- 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  71 

cumambient  universe,  that  it  is  impossible  to  lay 
down  laws,  unless  we  state  particulars.  Never- 
theless, the  whole  of  the  great  organs  of  the 
lower  body  are  controlled  from  the  two  lower 
centers,  and  these  organs  work  well  or  ill  accord- 
ing as  there  is  a  true  dynamic  psychic  activity 
at  the  two  primary  centers  of  consciousness.  By 
a  true  dynamic  psychic  activity  we  mean  an  ac- 
tivity which  is  true  to  the  individual  himself,  to 
his  own  peculiar  soul-nature.  And  a  dynamic 
psychic  activity  means  a  dynamic  polarity  be- 
tween the  individual  himself  and  other  individ- 
uals concerned  in  his  living;  or  between  him  and 
his  immediate  surroundings,  human,  physical, 
geographical. 

On  the  upper  plane,  the  lungs  and  heart  are 
controlled  from  the  cardiac  plane  and  the 
thoracic  ganglion.  Any  excess  in  the  sympa- 
thetic mode  from  the  upper  centers  tends  to 
burn  the  lungs  with  oxygen,  weaken  them  with 
stress,  and  cause  consumption.  So  it  is  just 
criminal  to  make  a  child  too  loving.  No  child 
should  be  induced  to  love  too  much.  It  means 
derangement  and  death  at  last. 

But  beyond  the  primary  physiological  func- 
tion— and  it  is  the  business  of  doctors  to  discover 
the    relation   between    the    functioning   of    the 


72         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

primary  organs  and  the  dynamic  psychic  activity 
at  the  four  primary  consciousness-centers, — be- 
yond these  physical  functions,  there  are  the 
activities  which  are  half-psychic,  half-func- 
tional.    Such  as  the  five  senses. 

Of  the  five  senses,  four  have  their  function- 
ing in  the  face-region.  The  fifth,  the  sense  of 
touch,  is  distributed  all  over  the  body.  But  all 
have  their  roots  in  the  four  great  primary  cen- 
ters of  consciousness.  From  the  constellation 
of  your  nerve-nodes,  from  the  great  field  of  your 
poles,  the  nerves  run  out  in  every  direction,  end- 
ing on  the  surface  of  the  body.  Inwardly  this 
is  an  inextricable  ramification  and  communica- 
tion. 

And  yet  the  body  is  planned  out  in  areas,  there 
is  a  definite  area-control  from  the  four  centers. 
On  the  back  the  sense  of  touch  is  not  acute. 
There  the  voluntary  centers  act  in  resistance. 
But  in  the  front  of  the  body,  the  breast  is  one 
great  field  of  sympathetic  touch,  the  belly  is  an- 
other. On  these  two  fields  the  stimulus  of  touch 
is  quite  different,  has  a  quite  different  psychic 
quality  and  psychic  result.  The  breast-touch  is 
the  fine  alertness  of  quivering  curiosity,  the 
belly-touch  is  a  deep  thrill  of  delight  and 
avidity.     Correspondingly,  the  hands  and  arms 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  73 

are  instruments  of  superb  delicate  curiosity,  and 
deliberate  execution.  Through  the  elbows  and 
the  wrists  flows  the  dynamic  psychic  current, 
and  a  dislocation  in  the  current  between  two  in- 
dividuals will  cause  a  feeling  of  dislocation  at 
the  wrists  and  elbows.  On  the  lower  plane,  the 
legs  and  feet  are  instruments  of  unfathomable 
gratifications  and  repudiations.  The  thighs,  the 
knees,  the  feet  are  intensely  alive  with  love- 
desire,  darkly  and  superbly  drinking  in  the  love- 
contact,  blindly.  Or  they  are  the  great  centers 
of  resistance,  kicking,  repudiating.  Sudden 
flushing  of  great  general  sympathetic  desire  will 
make  a  man  feel  weak  at  the  knees.  Hatred  will 
harden  the  tension  of  the  knees  like  steel,  and 
grip  the  feet  like  talons.  Thus  the  fields  of 
touch  are  four,  two  sympathetic  fields  in  front 
of  the  body  from  the  throat  to  the  feet,  two  re- 
sistant fields  behind  from  the  neck  to  the  heels. 

There  are  two  fields  of  touch,  however,  where 
the  distribution  is  not  so  simple:  the  face  and 
the  buttocks.  Neither  in  the  face  nor  in  the  but- 
tocks is  there  one  single  mode  of  sense  com- 
munication. 

The  face  is  of  course  the  great  window  of  the 
self,  the  great  opening  of  the  self  upon  the  world, 
the  great  gateway.    The  lower  body  has  its  own 


74         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

gates  of  exit.  But  the  bulk  of  our  communica- 
tion with  all  the  outer  universe  goes  on  through 
the  face. 

And  every  one  of  the  windows  or  gates  of  the 
face  has  its  direct  communication  with  each 
of  the  four  great  centers  of  the  first  field  of  con- 
sciousness. Take  the  mouth,  with  the  sense  of 
taste.  The  mouth  is  primarily  the  gate  of  the 
two  chief  sensual  centers.  It  is  the  gateway  to 
the  belly  and  the  loins.  Through  the  mouth  we 
eat  and  we  drink.  In  the  mouth  we  have  the 
sense  of  taste.  At  the  lips,  too,  we  kiss.  And  the 
kiss  of  the  mouth  is  the  first  sensual  connection. 

In  the  mouth  also  are  the  teeth.  And  the 
teeth  are  the  instruments  of  our  sensual  will. 
The  growth  of  the  teeth  is  controlled  entirely 
from  the  two  great  sensual  centers  below  the 
diaphragm.  But  almost  entirely  from  the  one 
center,  the  voluntary  center.  The  growth  and 
the  life  of  the  teeth  depend  almost  entirely  on 
the  lumbar  ganglion.  During  the  growth  of 
the  teeth  the  sympathetic  mode  is  held  in  abey- 
ance. There  is  a  sort  of  arrest.  There  is  pain, 
there  is  diarrhoea,  there  is  misery  for  the  baby. 

And  we,  in  our  age,  have  no  rest  with  our 
teeth.  Our  mouths  are  too  small.  For  many 
ages  we  have  been  suppressing  the  avid,  negroid, 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  75 

sensual  will.  We  have  been  converting  our- 
selves into  ideal  creatures,  all  spiritually  con- 
scious, and  active  dynamically  only  on  one  plane, 
the  upper,  spiritual  plane.  Our  mouth  has  con- 
tracted, our  teeth  have  become  soft  and  un- 
quickened.  Where  in  us  are  the  sharp  and  vivid 
teeth  of  the  wolf,  keen  to  defend  and  devour? 
If  we  had  them  more,  we  should  be  happier. 
Where  are  the  white  negroid  teeth?  Where? 
In  our  little  pinched  mouths  they  have  no  room. 
We  are  sympathy-rotten,  and  spirit-rotten,  and 
idea-rotten.  We  have  forfeited  our  flashing 
sensual  power.  And  we  have  false  teeth  in  our 
mouths.  In  the  same  way  the  lips  of  our  sen- 
sual desire  go  thinner  and  more  meaningless,  in 
the  compression  of  our  upper  will  and  our  idea- 
driven  impulse.  Let  us  break  the  conscious, 
self-conscious  love-ideal,  and  we  shall  grow 
strong,  resistant  teeth  once  more,  and  the  teeth- 
ing of  our  young  will  not  be  the  hell  it  is. 

Teething  is  strictly  the  period  when  the  vol- 
untary center  of  the  lower  plane  first  comes  into 
full  activity,  and  takes  for  a  time  the  pre- 
cedence. 

So,  the  mouth  is  the  great  sensual  gate  to  the 
lower  body.  But  let  us  not  forget  it  is  also  a 
gate  by  which  we  breathe,  the  gate  through 


76        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

which  we  speak  and  go  impalpably  forth  to  our 
object,  the  gate  at  which  we  can  kiss  the  pinched, 
delicate,  spiritual  kiss.  Therefore,  although  the 
main  sensual  gate  of  entrance  to  the  lower  body, 
it  has  its  reference  also  to  the  upper  body. 

Taste,  the  sense  of  taste,  is  an  intake  of  a  pure 
communication  between  us  and  a  body  from  the 
outside  world.  It  contains  the  element  of  touch, 
and  in  this  it  refers  to  the  cardiac  plexus.  But 
taste,  qua  taste,  refers  purely  to  the  solar  plexus. 

And  then  smell.  The  nostrils  are  the  great 
gate  from  the  wide  atmosphere  of  heaven  to  the 
lungs.  The  extreme  sigh  of  yearning  we  catch 
through  the  mouth.  But  the  delicate  nose  ad- 
vances always  into  the  air,  our  palpable  com- 
municator with  the  infinite  air.  Thus  it  has  its 
first  delicate  root  in  the  cardiac  plexus,  the  root 
of  its  intake.  And  the  root  of  the  delicate-proud 
exhalation,  rejection,  is  in  the  thoracic  ganglion. 
But  the  nostrils  have  their  other  function  of 
smell.  Here  the  delicate  nerve-ends  run  direct 
from  the  lower  centers,  from  the  solar  plexus 
and  the  lumbar  ganglion,  or  even  deeper.  There 
is  the  refined  sensual  intake  when  a  scent  is 
sweet.  There  is  the  sensual  repudiation  when 
a  scent  is  unsavoury.  And  just  as  the  fullness 
of  the  lips  and  the  shape  of  the  mouth  depend  on 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  77 

the  development  from  the  lower  or  the  upper 
centers,  the  sensual  or  the  spiritual,  so  does  the 
shape  of  the  nose  depend  on  the  direct  control 
of  the  deepest  centers  of  consciousness.  A  per- 
fect nose  is  perhaps  the  result  of  a  balance  in  the 
four  modes.  But  what  is  a  perfect  nose! — We 
only  know  that  a  short  snub  nose  goes  with  an 
over-sympathetic  nature,  not  proud  enough; 
while  a  long  nose  derives  from  the  center  of  the 
upper  will,  the  thoracic  ganglion,  our  great  cen- 
ter of  curiosity,  and  benevolent  or  objective  con- 
trol. A  thick,  squat  nose  is  the  sensual-sympa- 
thetic nose,  and  the  high,  arched  nose  the  sensual 
voluntary  nose,  having  the  curve  of  repu- 
diation, as  when  we  turn  up  our  nose  from 
a  bad  smell,  but  also  the  proud  curve  of  haughti- 
ness and  subjective  authority.  The  nose  is  one 
of  the  greatest  indicators  of  character.  That  is 
to  say,  it  almost  inevitably  indicates  the  mode  of 
predominant  dynamic  consciousness  in  the  indi- 
vidual, the  predominant  primary  center  from 
which  he  lives. — When  savages  rub  noses  in- 
stead of  kissing,  they  are  exchanging  a  more 
sensitive  and  a  deeper  sensual  salute  than  our 
lip-touch. 

The  eyes  are  the  third  great  gateway  of  the 
psyche.     Here  the  soul  goes  in  and  out  of  the 


78         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

body,  as  a  bird  flying  forth  and  coming  home. 
But  the  root  of  conscious  vision  is  almost  en- 
tirely in  the  breast.  When  I  go  forth  from  my 
own  eyes,  in  delight  to  dwell  upon  the  world 
which  is  beyond  me,  outside  me,  then  I  go  forth 
from  wide  open  windows,  through  which  shows 
the  full  and  living  lambent  darkness  of  my  pres- 
ent inward  self.  I  go  forth,  and  I  leave  the 
lovely  open  darkness  of  my  sensient  self  re- 
vealed ;  when  I  go  forth  in  the  wonder  of  vision 
to  dwell  upon  the  beloved,  or  upon  the  wonder 
of  the  world,  I  go  from  the  center  of  the  glad 
breast,  through  the  eyes,  and  who  will  may  look 
into  the  full  soft  darkness  of  me,  rich  with  my 
undiscovered  presence.  But  if  I  am  displeased, 
then  hard  and  cold  my  self  stands  in  my  eyes, 
and  refuses  any  communication,  any  sympathy, 
but  merely  stares  outwards.  It  is  the  motion  of 
cold  objectivity  from  the  thoracic  ganglion.  Or, 
from  the  same  center  of  will,  cold  but  intense  my 
eyes  may  watch  with  curiosity,  as  a  cat  watches 
a  fly.  It  may  be  into  my  curiosity  will  creep  an 
element  of  warm  gladness  in  the  wonder  which 
I  am  beholding  outside  myself.  Or  it  may  be 
that  my  curiosity  will  be  purely  and  simply  the 
cold,  almost  cruel  curiosity  of  the  upper  will, 
directed  from  the  ganglion  of  the  shoulders :  such 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  79 

as  is  the   acute  attention  of   an  experimental 
scientist. 

The  eyes  have,  however,  their  sensual  root  as 
well.  But  this  is  hard  to  transfer  into  language, 
as  all  our  vision,  our  modern  Northern  vision  is 
in  the  upper  mode  of  actual  seeing. 

There  is  a  sensual  way  of  beholding.  There 
is  the  dark,  desirous  look  of  a  savage  who  appre- 
hends only  that  which  has  direct  reference  to 
himself,  that  which  stirs  a  certain  dark  yearn- 
ing within  his  lower  self.  Then  his  eye  is 
fathomless  blackness.  But  there  is  the  dark  eye 
which  glances  with  a  certain  fire,  and  has  no 
depth.  There  is  a  keen  quick  vision  which 
watches,  which  beholds,  but  which  never  yields 
to  the  object  outside:  as  a  cat  watching  its  prey. 
The  dark  glancing  look  which  knows  the 
strangeness,  the  danger  of  its  object,  the  need  to 
overcome  the  object.  The  eye  which  is  not  wide 
open  to  study,  to  learn,  but  which  powerfully, 
proudly  or  cautiously  glances,  and  knows  the 
terror  or  the  pure  desirability  of  strangeness  in 
the  object  it  beholds.  The  savage  is  all  in  all  in 
himself.  That  which  he  sees  outside  he  hardly 
notices,  or,  he  sees  as  something  odd,  something 
automatically  desirable,  something  lustfully  de- 


So         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

sirable,  or  something  dangerous.  What  we  call 
vision,  that  he  has  not. 

We  must  compare  the  look  in  a  horse's  eye 
with  the  look  in  a  cow's.  The  eye  of  the  cow  is 
soft,  velvety,  receptive.  She  stands  and  gazes 
with  the  strangest  intent  curiosity.  She  goes 
forth  from  herself  in  wonder.  The  root  of  her 
vision  is  in  her  yearning  breast.  The  same  one 
hears  when  she  moos.  The  same  massive  weight 
of  passion  is  in  a  bull's  breast;  the  passion  to  go 
forth  from  himself.  His  strength  is  in  his 
breast,  his  weapons  are  on  his  head.  The  wonder 
is  always  outside  him. 

But  the  horse's  eye  is  bright  and  glancing. 
Kis  curiosity  is  cautious,  full  of  terror,  or  else 
aggressive  and  frightening  for  the  object.  The 
root  of  his  vision  is  in  his  belly,  in  the  solar 
plexus.  And  he  fights  with  his  teeth,  and  his 
heels,  the  sensual  weapons. 

Both  these  animals,  however,  are  established 
in  the  sympathetic  mode.  The  life  mode  in 
both  is  sensitively  sympathetic,  or  preponder- 
antly sympathetic.  Those  animals  which  like 
cats,  wolves,  tigers,  hawks,  chiefly  live  from  the 
great  voluntary  centers,  these  animals  are,  in  our 
sense  of  the  word,  almost  visionless.  Sight  in 
them  is  sharpened  or  narrowed  down  to  a  point: 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  8i 

the  object  of  prey.  It  is  exclusive.  They  see 
no  more  than  this.  And  thus  they  see  unthink- 
ably  far,  unthinkably  keenly. 

Most  animals,  however,  smell  what  they  see : 
vision  is  not  very  highly  developed.  They  know 
better  by  the  more  direct  contact  of  scent. 

And  vision  in  us  becomes  faulty  because  we 
proceed  too  much  in  one  mode.  We  see  too 
much,  we  attend  too  much.  The  dark,  glancing 
sightlessness  of  the  intent  savage,  the  narrowed 
vision  of  the  cat,  the  single  point  of  vision  of  the 
hawk — these  we  do  not  know  any  more.  We 
live  far  too  much  from  the  sympathetic  centers, 
without  the  balance  from  the  voluntary  mode. 
And  we  live  far,  far  too  much  from  the  upper 
sympathetic  center  and  voluntary  center,  in  an 
endless  objective  curiosity.  Sight  is  the  least  sen- 
sual of  all  the  senses.  And  we  strain  ourselves  to 
see,  see,  see — everything,  everything  through  the 
eye,  in  one  mode  of  objective  curiosity.  There 
is  nothing  inside  us,  we  stare  endlessly  at  the 
outside.  So  our  eyes  begin  to  fail;  to  retaliate 
on  us.  We  go  short-sighted,  almost  in  self- 
protection. 

Hearing  the  last,  and  perhaps  the  deepest  of 
the  senses.  And  here  there  is  no  choice.  In 
every  other  faculty  we  have  the  power  of  rejec- 


82         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

tion.  We  have  a  choice  of  vision.  We  can,  if 
we  choose,  see  in  the  terms  of  the  wonderful  be- 
yond, the  world  of  light  into  which  we  go  forth 
in  joy  to  lose  ouselves  in  it.  Or  we  can  see,  as 
the  Egyptians  saw,  in  the  terms  of  their  own 
dark  souls :  seeing  the  strangeness  of  the  creature 
outside,  the  gulf  between  it  and  them,  but  finally, 
its  existence  in  terms  of  themselves.  They  saw 
according  to  their  own  unchangeable  idea,  sub- 
jectively, they  did  not  go  forth  from  themselves 
to  seek  the  wonder  outside. 

Those  are  the  two  chief  ways  of  sympathetic 
vision.  We  call  our  way  the  objective,  the 
Egyptian  the  subjective.  But  objective  and  sub- 
jective are  words  that  depend  absolutely  on  your 
starting  point.  Spiritual  and  sensual  are  much 
more  descriptive  terms. 

But  there  are,  of  course,  also  the  two  ways  of 
volitional  vision.  We  can  see  with  the  endless 
modern  critical  sight,  analytic,  and  at  last  de- 
liberately ugly.  Or  we  can  see  as  the  hawk  sees 
the  one  concentrated  spot  where  beats  the  life- 
heart  of  our  prey. 

In  the  four  modes  of  sight  we  have  some 
choice.  We  have  some  choice  to  refuse  tastes 
or  smells  or  touch.  In  hearing  we  have  the 
minimum  of  choice.    Sound  acts  direct  upon  the 


THE  FIVE  SENSES  83 

great  affective  centers.  We  may  voluntarily 
quicken  our  hearing,  or  make  it  dull.  But  we 
have  really  no  choice  of  what  we  hear.  Our 
will  is  eliminated.  Sound  acts  direct,  almost 
automatically,  upon  the  affective  centers.  And 
we  have  no  power  of  going  forth  from  the  ear. 
We  are  always  and  only  recipient. 

Nevertheless,  sound  acts  upon  us  in  various 
ways,  according  to  the  four  primary  poles  of 
consciousness.  The  singing  of  birds  acts  almost 
entirely  upon  the  centers  of  the  breast.  Birds, 
which  live  by  flight,  impelled  from  the  strong 
conscious-activity  of  the  breast  and  shoulders, 
have  become  for  us  symbols  of  the  spirit,  the  up- 
per mode  of  consciousness.  Their  legs  have 
become  idle,  almost  insentient  twigs.  Only  the 
tail  flirts  from  the  center  of  the  sensual  will. 

But  their  singing  acts  direct  upon  the  upper, 
or  spiritual  centers  in  us.  So  does  almost  all  our 
music,  which  is  all  Christian  in  tendency.  But 
modern  music  is  analytical,  critical,  and  it  has 
discovered  the  power  of  ugliness.  Like  our 
martial  music,  it  is  of  the  upper  plane,  like  our 
martial  songs,  our  fifes  and  our  brass-bands. 
These  act  direct  upon  the  thoracic  ganglion. 
Time  was,  however,  when  music  acted  upon  the 
sensual  centers  direct.    We  hear  it  still  in  sav- 


84        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

age  music,  and  in  the  roll  of  drums,  and  in  the 
roaring  of  lions,  and  in  the  howling  of  cats.  And 
in  some  voices  still  we  hear  the  deeper  resonance 
of  the  sensual  mode  of  consciousness.  But  the 
tendency  is  for  everything  to  be  brought  on  to 
the  upper  plane,  whilst  the  lower  plane  is  just 
worked  automatically  from  the  upper. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FIRST   GLIMMERINGS   OF   MIND 

WE  can  now  see  what  is  the  true  goal  of  edu- 
cation for  a  child.  It  is  the  full  and  har- 
monious development  of  the  four  primary  modes 
of  consciousness,  always  with  regard  to  the  indi- 
vidual nature  of  the  child. 

The  goal  is  not  ideal.  The  aim  is  not  mental 
consciousness.  We  want  effectual  human  be- 
ings, not  conscious  ones.  The  final  aim  is  not 
to  know,  but  to  be.  There  never  was  a  more 
risky  motto  than  that:  Know  thyself.  You've 
got  to  know  yourself  as  far  as  possible.  But  not 
just  for  the  sake  of  knowing.  YouVe  got  to 
know  yourself  so  that  you  can  at  last  be  your- 
self.   ''Be  yourself"  is  the  last  motto. 

The  whole  field  of  dynamic  and  effectual  con- 
sciousness is  always  pre-mental,  non-mental. 
Not  even  the  most  knowing  man  that  ever  lived 
would  know  how  he  would  be  feeling  next  week; 
whether  some  new  and  utterly  shattering  im- 
pulse would  have  arisen  in  him  and  laid  his 

85 


86         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

nicely-conceived  self  in  ruins.  It  is  the  impulse 
we  have  to  live  by,  not  the  ideals  or  the  idea. 
But  we  have  to  know  ourselves  pretty  thoroughly 
before  we  can  break  the  automatism  of  ideals 
and  conventions.  The  savage  in  a  state  of  nature 
is  one  of  the  most  conventional  of  creatures.  So 
is  a  child.  Only  through  fine  delicate  knowl- 
edge can  we  recognize  and  release  our  impulses. 
Now  our  whole  aim  has  been  to  force  each  indi- 
vidual to  a  maximum  of  mental  control,  and 
mental  consciousness.  Our  poor  little  plans  of 
children  are  put  into  horrible  forcing-beds, 
called  schools,  and  the  young  idea  is  there  forced 
to  shoot.  It  shoots,  poor  thing,  like  a  potato  in 
a  warm  cellar.  One  mass  of  pallid  sickly  ideas 
and  ideals.  And  no  root,  no  life.  The  ideas 
shoot,  hard  enough,  in  our  sad  offspring,  but 
they  shoot  at  the  expense  of  life  itself.  Never 
was  such  a  mistake.  Mental  consciousness  is  a 
purely  individual  affair.  Some  men  are  born 
to  be  highly  and  delicately  conscious.  But  for 
the  vast  majority,  much  mental  consciousness  is 
simply  a  catastrophe,  a  blight.  It  just  stops  their 
living. 

Our  business,  at  the  present,  is  to  prevent  at 
all  cost  the  young  idea  from  shooting.  The  ideal 
mind,  the  brain,  has  become  the  vampire  of 


FIRST  GLIMMERINGS  OF  MIND  87 

modern  life,  sucking  up  the  blood  and  the  life. 
There  is  hardly  an  original  thought  or  original 
utterance  possible  to  us.  All  is  sickly  repetition 
of  stale,  stale  ideas. 

Let  all  schools  be  closed  at  once.  Keep  only 
a  few  technical  training  establishments,  nothing 
more.  Let  humanity  lie  fallow,  for  two  genera- 
tions at  least.  Let  no  child  learn  to  read,  unless 
it  learns  by  itself,  out  of  its  own  individual  per- 
sistent desire. 

That  is  my  serious  admonition,  gentle  reader. 
But  I  am  not  so  flighty  as  to  imagine  you  will 
pay  any  heed.  But  if  I  thought  you  would,  I 
should  feel  my  hope  surge  up.  And  if  you  don't 
pay  any  heed,  calamity  will  at  length  shut  your 
schools  for  you,  sure  enough. 

The  process  of  transfer  from  the  primary  con- 
sciousness to  recognized  mental  consciousness  is 
a  mystery  like  every  other  transfer.  Yet  it  fol- 
lows its  own  laws.  And  here  we  begin  to  ap- 
proach the  confines  of  orthodox  psychology, 
upon  which  we  have  no  desire  to  trespass.  But 
this  we  can  say.  The  degree  of  transfer  from 
primary  to  mental  consciousness  varies  with 
every  individual.  But  in  most  individuals  the 
natural  degree  is  very  low. 

The  process  of  transfer  from  primary  con- 


88         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

sciousness  is  called  sublimation,  the  sublimating 
of  the  potential  body  of  knowledge  with  the 
definite  reality  of  the  idea.  And  with  this 
process  we  have  identified  all  education.  The 
very  derivation  of  the  Latin  word  education 
shows  us.  Of  course  it  should  mean  the  leading 
forth  of  each  nature  to  its  fullness.  But  with  us, 
fools  that  we  are,  it  is  the  leading  forth  of  the 
primary  consciousness,  the  potential  or  dynamic 
consciousness,  into  mental  consciousness,  which 
is  finite  and  static.  Now  before  we  set  out  so 
gayly  to  lead  our  children  en  bloc  out  of  the 
dynamic  into  the  static  way  of  consciousness,  let 
us  consider  a  moment  what  we  are  doing. 

A  child  in  the  womb  can  have  no  idea  of  the 
mother.  I  think  orthodox  psychology  will  allow 
us  so  much.  And  yet  the  child  in  the  womb 
must  be  dynamically  conscious  of  the  mother. 
Otherwise  how  could  it  maintain  a  definite  and 
progressively  developing  relation  to  her? 

This  consciousness,  however,  is  utterly  non- 
ideal,  non-mental,  purely  dynamic,  a  matter  of 
dynamic  polarized  intercourse  of  vital  vibra- 
tions, as  an  exchange  of  wireless  messages  which 
are  never  translated  from  the  pulse-rhythm  into 
speech,  because  they  have  no  need  to  be.  It  is 
a  dynamic  polarized  intercourse  between  the 


FIRST  GLIMMERINGS  OF  MIND  89 

great  primary  nuclei  in  the  foetus  and  the  cor- 
responding nuclei  in  the  dynamic  maternal 
psyche. 

This  form  of  consciousness  is  established  at 
conception,  and  continues  long  after  birth.  Nay, 
it  continues  all  life  long.  But  the  particular  in- 
terchange of  dynamic  consciousness  between 
mother  and  child  suffers  no  interruption  at  birth. 
It  continues  almost  the  same.  The  child  has  no 
conception  whatsoever  of  the  mother.  It  can- 
not see  her,  for  its  eye  has  no  focus.  It  can  hear 
her,  because  hearing  needs  no  transmission  into 
concept,  but  it  has  no  oral  notion  of  sounds.  It 
knows  her.  But  only  by  a  form  of  vital  dynamic 
correspondence,  a  sort  of  magnetic  interchange. 
The  idea  does  not  intervene  at  all. 

Gradually,  however,  the  dark  shadow  of  our 
object  begins  to  loom  in  the  formless  mind  of 
the  infant.  The  idea  of  the  mother  is,  as  it 
were,  gradually  photographed  on  the  cerebral 
plasm.  It  begins  with  the  faintest  shadow — but 
the  figure  is  gradually  developed  through  years 
of  experience.    It  is  never  quite  completed. 

How  does  the  figure  of  the  mother  gradually 
develop  as  a  conception  in  the  child  mind?  It 
develops  as  the  result  of  the  positive  and  nega- 
tive reaction  from  the  primary  centers  of  con- 


90         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

sciousness.  From  the  first  great  center  of  sym- 
pathy the  child  is  drawn  to  a  lovely  oneing  with 
the  mother.  From  the  first  great  center  of  will 
comes  the  independent  self-assertion  which 
locates  the  mother  as  something  outside,  some- 
thing objective.  And  as  a  result  of  this  twofold 
notion,  a  twofold  increase  in  the  child.  First, 
the  dynamic  establishment  of  the  individual 
consciousness  in  the  infant:  and  then  the  first 
shadow  of  a  mental  conception  of  the  mother,  in 
the  infant  brain.  The  development  of  the  origi- 
nal mind  in  every  child  and  every  man  always 
and  only  follows  from  the  dual  fulfillment  in  the 
dynamic  consciousness. 

But  mark  further.  Each  time,  after  the  four- 
fold interchange  between  two  dynamic  polarized 
lives,  there  results  a  development  in  the  individ- 
uality and  a  sublimation  into  consciousness,  both 
simultaneously  in  each  party:  and  this  dual  de- 
velopment causes  at  once  a  diminution  in  the 
dynamic  polarity  between  the  two  parties.  That 
is,  as  its  individuality  and  its  mental  concept  of 
the  mother  develop  in  the  child,  there  is  a  cor- 
responding waning  of  the  dynamic  relation  be- 
tween the  child  and  the  mother.  And  this  is 
the  natural  progression  of  all  love.  As  we  have 
said  before,  the  accomplishment  of  individuality 


FIRST  GLIMMERINGS  OF  MIND  91 

never  finally  exhausts  the  dynamic  flow  between 
parents  and  child.  In  the  same  way,  a  child  can 
never  have  a  finite  conception  of  either  of  its 
parents.  It  can  have  a  very  much  more  finite, 
finished  conception  of  its  aunts  or  its  friends. 
The  portrait  of  the  parent  can  never  be  quite 
completed  in  the  mind  of  the  son  or  daughter. 
As  long  as  time  lasts  it  must  be  left  unfinished. 

Nevertheless,  the  inevitable  photography  of 
time  upon  the  mental  plasm  does  print  at  last 
a  very  substantial  portrait  of  the  parent,  a  very 
well-filled  concept  in  the  child  mind.  And  the 
nearer  a  conception  comes  towards  finality,  the 
nearer  does  the  dynamic  relation,  out  of  which 
this  concept  has  arisen,  draw  to  a  close.  To 
know,  is  to  lose.  When  I  have  a  finished  mental 
concept  of  a  beloved,  or  a  friend,  then  the  love 
and  the  friendship  is  dead.  It  falls  to  the  level 
of  an  acquaintance.  As  soon  as  I  have  a  fin- 
ished mental  conception,  a  full  idea  even  of  my- 
self, then  dynamically  I  am  dead.  To  know  is 
to  die. 

But  knowledge  and  death  are  part  of  our  nat- 
ural development.  Only,  of  course,  most  things 
can  never  be  known  by  us  in  full.  Which  means 
we  do  never  absolutely  die,  even  to  our  parents. 
So  that  Jesus'  question  to  His  mother,  ^  Woman, 


92         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

what  have  I  to  do  with  thee!" — while  express- 
ing a  major  truth,  still  has  an  exaggerated  sound, 
which  comes  from  its  denial  of  the  minor  truth. 

This  progression  from  dynamic  relationship 
towards  a  finished  individuality  and  a  finished 
mental  concept  is  carried  on  from  the  four  great 
primary  centers  through  the  correspondence 
medium  of  all  the  senses  and  sensibilities.  First 
of  all,  the  child  knows  the  mother  only  through 
touch — perfect  and  immediate  contact.  And  yet, 
from  the  moment  of  conception,  the  egg-cell  re- 
pudiated complete  adhesion  and  even  communi- 
cation, and  asserted  its  individual  Integrity.  The 
child  in  the  womb,  perfect  a  contact  though  it 
may  have  with  the  mother,  is  all  the  time  also 
dynamically  polarized  against  this  contact. 
From  the  first  moment,  this  relation  in  touch 
has  a  dual  polarity,  and,  no  doubt,  a  dual  mode. 
It  is  a  fourfold  interchange  of  consciousness,  the 
moment  the  egg-cell  has  made  its  two  spontane- 
ous divisions. 

As  soon  as  the  child  is  born,  there  is  a  real 
severance.  The  contact  of  touch  is  interrupted, 
it  now  becomes  occasional  only.  True,  the 
dynamic  flow  between  mother  and  child  is  not 
severed  when  simple  physical  contact  is  missing. 
Though  mother  and  child  may  not  touch,  still 


FIRST  GLIMMERINGS  OF  MIND  93 

the  dynamic  flow  continues  between  them.  The 
mother  knows  her  child,  feels  her  bowels  and 
her  breast  drawn  to  it,  even  if  it  be  a  hundred 
miles  away.  But  if  the  severance  continue  long, 
the  dynamic  flow  begins  to  die,  both  in  mother 
and  child.  It  wanes  fairly  quickly — and  per- 
haps can  never  be  fully  revived.  The  dynamic 
relation  between  parent  and  child  may  fairly 
easily  fall  into  quiescence,  a  static  condition. 

For  a  full  dynamic  relationship  it  is  necessary 
that  there  be  actual  contact.  The  nerves  run 
from  the  four  primary  dynamos,  and  end  with 
live  ends  all  over  the  body.  And  it  is  necessary 
to  bring  the  live  ends  of  the  nerves  of  the  child 
into  contact  with  the  live  ends  of  corresponding 
nerves  in  the  mother,  so  that  a  pure  circuit  is 
established.  Wherever  a  pure  circuit  is  estab- 
lished, there  occurs  a  pure  development  in  the 
individual  creation,  and  this  is  inevitably  accom- 
panied by  sensation;  and  sensation  is  the  first 
term  of  mental  knowledge. 

So,  from  the  field  of  the  breast  and  arms,  the 
upper  circuit,  and  from  the  field  of  the  knees 
and  feet  and  belly,  the  lower  circuit. 

And  then,  the  moment  a  child  is  born,  the  face 
is  alive.  And  the  face  communicates  direct  with 
both   planes   of    primary   consciousness.     The 


94         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

moment  a  child  is  born,  it  begins  to  grope  for 
the  breast.  And  suddenly  a  new  great  circuit  is 
established,  the  four  poles  all  working  at  once, 
as  the  child  sucks.  There  is  the  profound  desir- 
ousness  of  the  lower  center  of  sympathy,  and 
the  superior  avidity  of  the  center  of  will,  and 
at  the  same  time,  the  cleaving  yearning  to  the 
nipple,  and  the  tiny  curiosity  of  lips  and  gums. 
The  nipple  of  the  mother's  breast  is  one  of  the 
great  gates  of  the  body,  hence  of  the  living 
psyche.  In  the  nipple  terminate  vivid  nerves 
which  flash  their  very  powerful  vibrations 
through  the  mouth  of  the  child  and  deep  into 
its  four  great  poles  of  being  and  knowing.  Even 
the  nipples  of  the  man  are  gateways  to  the  great 
dynamic  flow :  still  gateways. 

Touch,  taste,  and  smell  are  now  active  in  the 
baby.  And  these  senses,  so-called,  are  strictly 
sensations.  They  are  the  first  term  of  the  child's 
mental  knowledge.  And  on  these  three  cerebral 
reactions  the  foundation  of  the  future  mind  is 
laid. 

The  moment  there  is  a  perfect  polarized  cir- 
cuit between  the  first  four  poles  of  dynamic  con- 
sciousness, at  that  moment  does  the  mind,  the 
terminal  station,  flash  into  cognition.  The  first 
cognition  is  merely  sensation :  sensation  and  the 


FIRST  GLIMMERINGS  OF  MIND  95 

remembrance  of  sensation  being  the  first  ele- 
ment in  all  knowing  and  in  all  conception. 

The  circuit  of  touch,  taste,  and  smell  must  be 
well  established,  before  the  eyes  begin  actually 
to  see.  All  mental  knowledge  is  built  up  of  sen- 
sation and  of  memory.  It  is  the  continually  re- 
curring sensation  of  the  touch  of  the  mother 
which  forms  the  basis  of  the  first  conception  of 
the  mother.  After  that,  the  gradually  dis- 
criminated taste  of  the  mother,  and  scent  of  the 
mother.  Till  gradually  sight  and  hearing  de- 
velop and  largely  usurp  the  first  three  senses, 
as  medium  of  correspondence  and  of  knowledge. 

And  while,  of  course,  the  sensational  knowl- 
edge is  being  secreted  in  the  brain,  in  some  much 
more  mysterious  way  the  living  individuality  of 
the  child  is  being  developed  in  the  four  first 
nuclei,  the  four  great  nerve-centers  of  the  pri- 
mary field  of  consciousness  and  being. 

As  time  goes  on,  the  child  learns  to  see  the 
mother.  At  first  he  sees  her  face  as  a  blur,  and 
though  he  knows  her,  knows  her  by  a  direct  glow 
of  communication,  as  if  her  face  were  a  warm 
glowing  life-lamp  which  rejoiced  him.  But 
gradually,  as  the  circuit  of  touch,  taste,  and  smell 
become  powerfully  established;  gradually,  as 
the  individual  develops  in  the  child,  and  so  re- 


96         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

treats  towards  isolation;  gradually,  as  the  child 
stands  more  immune  from  the  mother,  the  cir- 
cuit of  correspondence  extends,  and  the  eyes 
now  communicate  across  space,  the  ears  begin 
to  discriminate  sounds.  Last  of  all  develops  dis- 
criminate hearing. 

Now  gradually  the  picture  of  the  mother  is 
transferred  to  the  child's  mind,  and  the  sound  of 
the  first  baby-words  is  imprinted.  And  as  the 
child  learns  to  discriminate  visually,  objectively, 
between  the  mother  and  the  nurse,  he  learns  to 
choose,  and  becomes  individually  free.  And 
still,  the  dynamic  correspondence  is  not  finished. 
It  only  changes  its  circuit. 

While  the  brain  is  registering  sensations,  the 
four  dynamic  centers  are  coming  into  perfect 
relation.  Or  rather,  as  we  see,  the  reverse  is 
the  case.  As  the  dynamic  centers  come  into  per- 
fect relation,  the  mind  registers  and  remembers 
sensations,  and  begins  consciously  to  know. 
But  the  great  field  of  activity  is  still  and  always 
the  dynamic  field.  When  a  child  learns  to 
walk,  it  learns  almost  entirely  from  the  solar 
plexus  and  the  lumbar  ganglion,  the  cardiac 
plexus  and  the  thoracic  ganglion  balancing  the 
upper  body. 

There  is  a  perfected  circuit  of  polarity.    The 


FIRST  GLIMMERINGS  OF  MIND  97 

two  lower  centers  are  the  positive,  the  two  upper 
the  negative  poles.  And  so  the  child  strikes  out 
with  his  feet  for  the  earth,  presses,  and  strikes 
away  again  from  the  earth,  the  two  upper  cen- 
ters meanwhile  corresponding  implicitly  in  the 
balance  of  the  upper  body.  It  is  a  chain  of 
spontaneous  activity  in  the  four  primary  cen- 
ters, establishing  a  circuit  through  the  whole 
body.  But  the  positive  poles  are  the  lower  cen- 
ters. And  the  brain  has  probably  nothing  at 
all  to  do  with  it.  Even  the  desire  to  walk  is  not 
born  in  the  brain,  but  in  the  primary  nuclei. 

The  same  with  the  use  of  the  hands  and  arms. 
It  means  the  establishment  of  a  pure  circuit  be- 
tween the  four  centers,  the  two  upper  poles  now 
being  the  positive,  the  lower  the  negative  poles, 
and  the  hands  the  live  end  of  the  wire.  Again 
the  brain  is  not  concerned.  Probably,  even  in 
the  first  deliberate  grasping  of  an  object,  the 
brain  is  not  concerned.  Not  until  there  is  an 
element  of  recognition  and  sensation-memory. 

All  our  primal  activity  originates  and  circu- 
lates purely  in  the  four  great  nerve  centers.  All 
our  active  desire,  our  genuine  impulse,  our  love, 
our  hope,  our  yearning,  everything  originates 
mysteriously  at  these  four  great  centers  or  well- 
heads of  our  existence:   everything  vital   and 


98         FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

dynamic.  The  mind  can  only  register  that 
which  results  from  the  emanation  of  the  dynamic 
impulse  and  the  collision  or  communion  of  this 
impulse  with  its  object. 

So  now  we  see  that  we  can  never  know  our- 
selves. Knowledge  is  to  consciousness  what  the 
signpost  is  to  the  traveler:  just  an  indication  of 
the  way  which  has  been  traveled  before. 
Knowledge  is  not  even  in  direct  proportion  to 
being.  There  may  be  great  knowledge  of  chem- 
istry in  a  man  who  is  a  rather  poor  being:  and 
those  who  know,  even  in  wisdom  like  Solomon, 
are  often  at  the  end  of  the  matter  of  living,  not 
at  the  beginning.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  David 
did  the  living,  the  dynamic  achievement.  To 
Solomon  was  left  the  consummation  and  the 
finish,  and  the  dying  down. 

Yet  we  must  know,  if  only  in  order  to  learn 
not  to  know.  The  supreme  lesson  of  human  con- 
sciousness is  to  learn  how  not  to  know.  That  is, 
how  not  to  interfere.  That  is,  how  to  live 
dynamically,  from  the  great  Source,  and  not 
statically,  like  machines  driven  by  ideas  and 
principles  from  the  head,  or  automatically, 
from  one  fixed  desire.    At  last,  knowledge  must 


FIRST  GLIMMERINGS  OF  MIND  99 

be  put  into  its  true  place  in  the  living  activity 
of  man.  And  wq  must  knovv^  deeply,  in  order 
even  to  do  that. 

So  a  nevsr  conception  of  the  meaning  of  edu- 
cation. 

Education  means  leading  out  the  individual 
nature  in  each  man  and  woman  to  its  true  full- 
ness. You  can't  do  that  by  stimulating  the  mind. 
To  pump  education  into  the  mind  is  fatal.  That 
v^hich  sublimates  from  the  dynamic  conscious- 
ness into  the  mental  consciousness  has  alone  any 
value.  This,  in  most  individuals,  is  very  little 
indeed.  So  that  most  individuals,  under  a  wise 
government,  would  be  most  carefully  protected 
from  all  vicious  attempts  to  inject  extraneous 
ideas  into  them.  Every  extraneous  idea,  which 
has  no  inherent  root  in  the  dynamic  conscious- 
ness, is  as  dangerous  as  a  nail  driven  into  a 
young  tree.  For  the  mass  of  people,  knowledge 
must  be  symbolical,  mythical,  dynamic.  This 
means,  you  must  have  a  higher,  responsible,  con- 
scious class:  and  then  in  varying  degrees  the 
lower  classes,  varying  in  their  degree  of  con- 
sciousness. Symbols  must  be  true  from  top  to 
bottom.  But  the  interpretation  of  the  symbols 
must  rest,  degree  after  degree,  in  the  higher,  re- 


loo       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

Sponsible,  conscious  classes.  To  those  who  can- 
not divest  themselves  again  of  mental  conscious- 
ness and  definite  ideas,  mentality  and  ideas  are 
death,  nails  through  their  hands  and  feet. 


CHAPTER  VII 

FIRST  STEPS   IN   EDUCATION 

THE  first  process  of  education  is  obviously 
not  a  mental  process.  When  a  mother 
talks  to  a  baby,  she  is  not  encouraging  its  little 
mind  to  think.  When  she  is  coaxing  her  child 
to  walk,  she  is  not  making  a  theoretic  exposition 
of  the  science  of  equilibration.  She  crouches 
before  the  child,  at  a  little  distance,  and  spreads 
her  hands.  ^^Come,  baby — come  to  mother. 
Come!  Baby,  walk!  Yes,  walk!  Walk  to 
mother!  Come  along.  A  little  walk  to  its 
mother.  Come!  Come  then!  Why  yes,  a 
pretty  baby!  Oh,  he  can  toddle!  Yes — yes — 
No,  don't  be  frightened,  a  dear.  No —  Come 
to  mother — "  and  she  catches  his  little  pinafore 
by  the  tip — and  the  infant  lurches  forward. 
"There!  There!  A  beautiful  walk!  A  beauti- 
ful walker,  yes!  Walked  all  the  way  to  mother, 
baby  did.    Yes,  he  did—" 

Now  who  will  tell  me  that  this  talk  has  any 
rhyme  or  reason?    Not  a  spark  of  reason.    Yet 


I02       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

a  real  rhyme :  or  rhythm,  much  more  important. 
The  song  and  the  urge  of  the  mother's  voice 
plays  direct  on  the  affective  centers  of  the  child, 
a  wonderful  stimulus  and  tuition.  The  words 
hardly  matter.  True,  this  constant  repetition 
in  the  end  forms  a  mental  association.  At  the 
moment  they  have  no  mental  significance  at  all 
for  the  baby.  But  they  ring  with  a  strange  pal- 
pitating music  in  his  fluttering  soul,  and  lift 
him  into  motion. 

And  this  is  the  way  to  educate  children:  the 
instinctive  way  of  mothers.  There  should  be 
no  efiFort  made  to  teach  children  to  think,-^  to 
have  ideas.  Only  to  lift  them  and  urge  them  into 
dynamic  activity.  The  voice  of  dynamic  sound, 
not  the  words  of  understanding.  Damn  under- 
standing. Gestures,  and  touch,  and  expression 
of  the  face,  not  theory.  Never  have  ideas  about 
children — and  never  have  ideas  for  them. 

If  we  are  going  to  teach  children  we  must 
teach  them  first  to  move.  And  not  by  rule  or 
mental  dictation.  Horror!  But  by  playing  and 
teasing  and  anger,  and  amusement.  A  child 
must  learn  to  move  blithe  and  free  and  proud. 
It  must  learn  the  fullness  of  spontaneous  mo- 
tion. And  this  it  can  only  learn  by  continuous 
reaction  from  all  the  centers,  through  all  the 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  103 

emotions.  A  child  must  learn  to  contain  itself. 
It  must  learn  to  sit  still  if  need  be.  Part  of  the 
first  phase  of  education  is  the  learning  to  stay 
still  and  be  physically  self-contained.  Then  a 
child  must  learn  to  be  alone,  and  to  adventure 
alone,  and  to  play  alone.  Any  peevish  clinging 
should  be  quite  roughly  rebuffed.  From  the 
very  first  day,  throw  a  child  back  on  its  own 
resources — even  a  little  cruelly  sometimes.  But 
don't  neglect  it,  don't  have  a  negative  attitude 
to  it.  Play  with  it,  tease  it  and  roll  it  over  as 
a  dog  her  puppy,  mock  it  when  it  is  too  timorous, 
laugh  at  it,  scold  it  when  it  really  bothers  you — 
for  a  child  must  learn  not  to  bother  another  per- 
son— and  when  it  makes  you  genuinely  angry, 
spank  it  soundly.  But  always  remember  that  it 
is  a  single  little  soul  by  itself;  and  that  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  wise,  warm  relationship  is 
yours,  the  adult's. 

Then  always  watch  its  deportment.  Above 
all  things  encourage  a  straight  backbone  and 
proud  shoulders.  Above  all  things  despise  a 
slovenly  movement,  an  ugly  bearing  and  un- 
pleasing  manner.  And  make  a  mock  of  petu- 
lance and  of  too  much  timidity. 

We  are  imbeciles  to  start  bothering  about  love 
and  so  forth  in  a  child.     Forget  utterly  that 


I04       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

there  is  such  a  thing  as  emotional  reciprocity. 
But  never  forget  your  own  honor  as  an  adult  in- 
dividual towards  a  small  individual.  It  is  a 
question  of  honor,  not  of  love. 

A  tree  grows  straight  when  it  has  deep  roots 
and  is  not  too  stifled.  Love  is  a  spontaneous 
thing,  coming  out  of  the  spontaneous  effectual 
soul.  As  a  deliberate  principle  it  is  an  unmiti- 
gated evil.  Also  morality  which  is  based  on 
ideas,  or  on  an  ideal,  is  an  unmitigated  evil.  A 
child  which  is  proud  and  free  in  its  movements, 
in  all  its  deportment,  will  be  quite  as  moral  as 
need  be.  Honor  is  an  instinct,  a  superb  instinct 
which  should  be  kept  keenly  alive.  Immorality, 
vice,  crime,  these  come  from  a  suppression  or  a 
collapse  at  one  or  other  of  the  great  primary 
centers.  If  one  of  these  centers  fails  to  main- 
tain its  true  polarity,  then  there  is  a  physical  or 
psychic  derangement,  or  both.  And  viciousness 
or  crime  are  the  result  of  a  derangement  in  the 
primary  system.  Pure  morality  is  only  an  in- 
stinctive adjustment  which  the  soul  makes  in 
every  circumstance,  adjusting  one  thing  to  an- 
other livingly,  delicately,  sensitively.  There 
can  be  no  law.  Therefore,  at  every  cost  and 
charge  keep  the  first  four  centers  alive  and 
alert,  active,  and  vivid  in  reaction.     And  then 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  105 

you  need  fear  no  perversion.  What  we  have 
done,  in  our  era,  is,  first,  wg  have  tried  as  far  as 
possible  to  suppress  or  subordinate  the  two  sen- 
sual centers.  We  have  so  unduly  insisted  on  and 
exaggerated  the  upper  spiritual  or  selfless  mode 
— the  living  in  the  other  person  and  through  the 
other  person — that  we  have  caused  already  a 
dangerous  over-balance  in  the  natural  psyche. 

To  correct  this  we  go  one  worse,  and  try  to 
rule  ourselves  more  and  more  by  the  old  ideas 
of  sympathy  and  benevolence.  We  think  that 
love  and  benevolence  will  cure  anything. 
Whereas  love  and  benevolence  are  our  poison, 
poison  to  the  giver,  and  still  more  poison  to  the 
receiver.  Poison  only  because  there  is  practi- 
cally no  spontaneous  love  left  in  the  world.  It 
is  all  will,  the  fatal  love-will  and  insatiable 
morbid  curiosity.  The  pure  sympathetic  mode 
of  love  long  ago  broke  down.  There  is  now 
only  deadly,  exaggerated  volition. 

This  is  also  why  general  education  should  be 
suppressed  as  soon  as  possible.  We  have  fallen 
into  a  state  of  fixed,  deadly  will.  Everything 
we  do  and  say  to  our  children  in  school  tends 
simply  to  fix  in  them  the  same  deadly  will,  un- 
der the  pretence  of  pure  love.  Our  idealism  is 
the    clue    to    our    fixed    will.      Love,    beauty, 


io6       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

benevolence,  progress,  these  are  the  words  we 
use.  But  the  principle  we  evoke  is  a  principle 
of  barren,  sanctified  compulsion  of  all  life.  We 
want  to  put  all  life  under  compulsion.  ''How 
to  outwit  the  nerves,"  for  example. — And 
therefore,  to  save  the  children  as  far  as  possible, 
elementary  education  should  be  stopped  at 
once. 

No  child  should  be  sent  to  any  sort  of  public 
institution  before  the  age  of  ten  years.  If  I 
could  but  advise,  I  would  advise  that  this  notice 
should  be  sent  through  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land. 

"Parents,  the  State  can  no  longer  be  re- 
sponsible for  the  mind  and  character  of 
your  children.  From  the  first  day  of  the 
coming  year,  all  schools  will  be  closed  for 
an  indefinite  period.  Fathers,  see  that  your 
boys  are  trained  to  be  men.  Mothers,  see 
that  your  daughters  are  trained  to  be 
women. 

"All  schools  will  shortly  be  converted 
either  into  public  workshops  or  into  gym- 
nasia. No  child  will  be  admitted  into  the 
workshops  under  ten  years  of  age.  Active 
training  in  primitive  modes  of  fighting  and 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  107 

gymnastics  will  be  compulsory  for  all  boys 
over  ten  years  of  age. 

^^All  girls  over  ten  years  of  age  must  at- 
tend at  one  domestic  workshop.  All  girls 
over  ten  years  of  age  may,  in  addition,  at- 
tend at  one  workshop  of  skilled  labor,  or 
of  technical  industry,  or  of  art.  Admission 
for  three  months'  probation. 

"All  boys  over  ten  years  of  age  must  at- 
tend at  one  workshop  of  domestic  crafts, 
and  at  one  workshop  of  skilled  labor,  or  of 
technical  industry,  or  of  art.  A  boy  may 
choose,  with  his  parents'  consent,  his  school 
of  labor,  or  technical  industry  or  art,  but 
the  directors  reserve  the  right  to  transfer 
him  to  a  more  suitable  department,  if  neces- 
sary, after  a  three  months'  probation. 

"It  is  the  intention  of  this  State  to  form 
a  body  of  active,  energetic  citizens.  The 
danger  of  a  helpless,  presumptuous,  news- 
paper-reading population  is  universally 
recognized. 

"All  elementary  education  is  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  parents,  save  such  as  is  neces- 
sary to  the  different  branches  of  industry. 

"Schools  of  mental  culture  are  free  to  all 
individuals  over  fourteen  years  of  age. 


io8       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

"Universities  are  free  to  all  who  obtain 
the  first  culture  degree." 

The  fact  is,  our  process  of  universal  education 
is  to-day  so  uncouth,  so  psychologically  barbaric, 
that  it  is  the  most  terrible  menace  to  the  exist- 
ence of  our  race.  We  seize  hold  of  our  children, 
and  by  parrot-compulsion  we  force  into  them  a 
set  of  mental  tricks.  By  unnatural  and  unhealthy 
compulsion  we  force  them  into  a  certain  amount 
of  cerebral  activity.  And  then,  after  a  few 
years,  with  a  certain  number  of  windmills  in 
their  heads,  we  turn  them  loose,  like  so  many 
inferior  Don  Quixotes,  to  make  a  mess  of  life. 
All  that  they  have  learnt  in  their  heads  has  no 
reference  at  all  to  their  dynamic  souls.  The 
windmills  spin  and  spin  in  a  wind  of  words, 
Dulcinea  del  Toboso  beckons  round  every 
corner,  and  our  nation  of  inferior  Quixotes 
jumps  on  and  off  tramcars,  trains,  bicycles, 
motor-cars,  buses,  in  one  mad  chase  of  the 
divine  Dulcinea,  who  is  all  the  time  chew- 
ing chocolates  and  feeling  very,  very  bored. 
It  is  no  use  telling  the  poor  devils  to  stop. 
They  read  in  the  newspapers  about  more 
Dulcineas  and  more  chivalry  due  to  them 
and  more  horrid  persons  who  injure  the  fair 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  109 

fame  of  these  bored  females.  And  round  they 
skelter,  after  their  own  tails.  That  is,  when 
they  are  not  forced  to  grind  out  their  lives  for  a 
wage.  Though  work  is  the  only  thing  that  pre- 
vents our  masses  from  going  quite  mad. 

To  tell  the  truth,  ideas  are  the  most  dangerous 
germs  mankind  has  ever  been  injected  with. 
They  are  introduced  into  the  brain  by  injection, 
in  schools  and  by  means  of  newspapers,  and  then 
we  are  done  for. 

An  idea  which  is  merely  introduced  into  the 
brain,  and  started  spinning  there  like  some  out- 
rageous insect,  is  the  cause  of  all  our  misery  to- 
day. Instead  of  living  from  the  spontaneous 
centers,  we  live  from  the  head.  We  chew,  chew, 
chew  at  some  theory,  some  idea.  We  grind, 
grind,  grind  in  our  mental  consciousness,  till  we 
are  beside  ourselves.  Our  primary  affective 
centers,  our  centers  of  spontaneous  being,  are 
so  utterly  ground  round  and  automatized  that 
they  squeak  in  all  stages  of  disharmony  and  in- 
cipient collapse.  We  are  a  people — and  not  we 
alone — of  idiots,  imbeciles  and  epileptics,  and 
we  don't  even  know  we  are  raving. 

And  all  is  due,  directly  and  solely,  to  that 
hateful  germ  we  call  the  Ideal.  The  Ideal  is 
always  evil,  no  matter  what  ideal  it  be.    No  idea 


1 10       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

should  ever  be  raised  to  a  governing  throne. 

This  does  not  mean  that  man  should  imme- 
diately cut  off  his  head  and  try  to  develop  a  pair 
of  eyes  in  his  breasts.  But  it  does  mean  this: 
that  an  idea  is  just  the  final  concrete  or  regis- 
tered result  of  living  dynamic  interchange  and 
reactions:  that  no  idea  is  ever  perfectly  ex- 
pressed until  its  dynamic  cause  is  finished;  and 
that  to  continue  to  put  into  dynamic  effect  an 
already  perfected  idea  means  the  nullification 
of  all  living  activity,  the  substitution  of  mech- 
anism, and  all  the  resultant  horrors  of  ennui,  ec- 
stasy, neurasthenia,  and  a  collapsing  psyche. 

The  whole  tree  of  our  idea  of  life  and  living 
is  dead.  Then  let  us  leave  off  hanging  ourselves 
and  our  children  from  its  branches  like  medlars. 

The  idea,  the  actual  idea,  must  rise  ever  fresh, 
ever  displaced,  like  the  leaves  of  a  tree,  from  out 
of  the  quickness  of  the  sap,  and  according  to  the 
forever  incalculable  effluence  of  the  great 
dynamic  centers  of  life.  The  tree  of  life  is  a 
gay  kind  of  tree  that  is  forever  dropping  its 
leaves  and  budding  out  afresh,  quite  different 
ones.  If  the  last  lot  were  thistle  leaves,  the  next 
lot  may  be  vine.  You  never  can  tell  with  the 
Tree  of  Life. 

So  we  come  back  to  that  precious  child  who 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  iii 

costs  us  such  a  lot  of  ink.  By  what  right,  I  ask 
you,  are  we  going  to  inject  into  him  our  own 
disease-germs  of  ideas  and  infallible  motives? 
By  the  right  of  the  diseased,  who  want  to  infect 
everybody. 

There  are  few,  few  people  in  whom  the  living 
impulse  and  reaction  develops  and  sublimates 
into  mental  consciousness.  There  are  all  kinds 
of  trees  in  the  forest.  But  few  of  them  indeed 
bear  the  apples  of  knowledge.  The  modern 
world  insists,  however,  that  every  individual 
shall  bear  the  apples  of  knowledge.  So  we  go 
through  the  forest  of  mankind,  cut  back  every 
tree,  and  try  to  graft  it  into  an  apple-tree.  A 
nice  wood  of  monsters  we  make  by  so  doing. 

It  is  not  the  nature  of  most  men  to  know  and 
to  understand  and  to  reason  very  far.  Therefore, 
why  should  they  make  a  pretense  of  it?  It  is 
the  nature  of  some  few  men  to  reason,  then  let 
them  reason.  Those  whose  nature  it  is  to  be 
rational  will  instinctively  ask  why  and  where- 
fore, and  wrestle  with  themselves  for  an  answer. 
But  why  every  Tom,  Dick  and  Harry  should 
have  the  why  and  wherefore  of  the  universe 
rammed  into  him,  and  should  be  allowed  to 
draw  the  conclusion  hence  that  he  is  the  ideal 
person  and  responsible  for  the  universe,  I  don't 


112       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

know.  It  is  a  lie  anyway — for  neither  the  whys 
nor  the  wherefores  are  his  own,  and  he  is  but  a 
parrot  with  his  nut  of  a  universe. 

Why  should  we  cram  the  mind  of  a  child  with 
facts  that  have  nothing  to  do  with  his  own  expe- 
riences, and  have  no  relation  to  his  own  dynamic 
activity?  Let  us  realize  that  every  extraneous 
idea  effectually  introduced  into  a  man's  mind  is 
a  direct  obstruction  of  his  dynamic  activity. 
Every  idea  which  is  introduced  from  outside  into 
a  man's  mind,  and  which  does  not  correspond  to 
his  own  dynamic  nature,  is  a  fatal  stumbling- 
block  for  that  man :  is  a  cause  of  arrest  for  his 
true  individual  activity,  and  a  derangement  to 
his  psychic  being. 

For  instance,  if  I  teach  a  man  the  idea  that 
all  men  are  equal.  Now  this  idea  has  no  founda- 
tion in  experience,  but  is  logically  deduced  from 
certain  ethical  or  philosophic  principles.  But 
there  is  a  disease  of  idealism  in  the  world,  and 
we  all  are  born  with  it.  Particularly  teachers 
are  born  with  it.  So  they  seize  on  the  idea  of 
equality,  and  proceed  to  instil  it.  With  what 
result?  Your  man  is  no  longer  a  man,  living 
his  own  life  from  his  own  spontaneous  centers. 
He  is  a  theoretic  imbecile  trying  to  frustrate  and 
dislocate  all  life. 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  113 

It  IS  the  death  of  all  life  to  force  a  pure  idea 
into  practice.  Life  must  be  lived  from  the  deep, 
self-responsible  spontaneous  centers  of  every 
individual,  in  a  vital,  non-ideal  circuit  of 
dynamic  relation  between  individuals.  The 
passions  or  desires  which  are  thought-born  are 
deadly.  Any  particular  mode  of  passion  or  desire 
which  receives  an  exclusive  ideal  sanction  at 
once  becomes  poisonous. 

If  this  is  true  for  men,  it  is  much  more  true  for 
women.  Teach  a  woman  to  act  from  an  idea, 
and  you  destroy  her  womanhood  for  ever.  Make 
a  woman  self-conscious,  and  her  soul  is  barren  as 
a  sandbag.  Why  were  we  driven  out  of  Para- 
dise? Why  did  we  fall  into  this  gnawing  disease 
of  unappeasable  dissatisfaction?  Not  because 
we  sinned.  Ah,  no.  All  the  animals  in  Paradise 
enjoyed  the  sensual  passion  of  coition.  Not  be- 
cause we  sinned.  But  because  we  got  our  sex 
into  our  head. 

When  Eve  ate  that  particular  apple,  she  be- 
came aware  of  her  own  womanhood,  mentally. 
And  mentally  she  began  to  experiment  with  it. 
She  has  been  experimenting  ever  since.  So  has 
man.    To  the  rage  and  horror  of  both  of  them. 

These  sexual  experiments  are  really  anathema. 
But  once  a  woman  is  sexually  self-conscious^ 


114       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

what  is  she  to  do?  There  it  is,  she  is  born  with 
the  disease  of  her  own  self-consciousness,  as  was 
her  mother  before  her.  She  is  bound  to  experi- 
ment and  try  one  idea  after  another,  in  the  long 
run  always  to  her  own  misery.  She  is  bound  to 
have  fixed  one,  and  then  another  idea  of  herself, 
herself  as  woman.  First  she  is  the  noble  spouse 
of  a  not-quite-so-noble  male :  then  a  Mater  Dolo- 
rosa :  then  a  ministering  Angel :  then  a  competent 
social  unit,  a  Member  of  Parliament  or  a  Lady 
Doctor  or  a  platform  speaker:  and  all  the  while, 
as  a  side  show,  she  is  the  Isolde  of  some  Tristan, 
or  the  Guinevere  of  some  Lancelot,  or  the  Fata 
Morgana  of  all  men — in  her  own  idea.  She 
can't  stop  having  an  idea  of  herself.  She  can't 
get  herself  out  of  her  own  head.  And  there  she 
is,  functioning  away  from  her  own  head  and  her 
own  consciousness  of  herself  and  her  own  auto- 
matic self-will,  till  the  whole  man  and  woman 
game  has  become  just  a  hell,  and  men  with  any 
backbone  would  rather  kill  themselves  than  go 
on  with  it — or  kill  somebody  else. 

Yet  we  are  going  to  inculcate  more  and  more 
self-consciousness,  teach  every  little  Mary  to  be 
more  and  more  a  nice  little  Mary  out  of  her  own 
head,  and  every  little  Joseph  to  theorize  himself 
up  to  the  scratch. 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  115 

And  the  point  lies  here.  There  will  have  to 
come  an  end.  Every  race  which  has  become 
self-conscious  and  idea-bound  in  the  past  has 
perished.  And  then  it  has  all  started  afresh,  in 
a  different  way,  with  another  race.  And  man 
has  never  learnt  any  better.  We  are  really  far, 
far  more  life-stupid  than  the  dead  Greeks  or  the 
lost  Etruscans.  Our  day  is  pretty  short,  and 
closing  fast.  We  can  pass,  and  another  race  can 
follow  later. 

But  there  is  another  alternative.  We  still 
have  in  us  the  power  to  discriminate  between 
our  own  idealism,  our  own  self-conscious  will, 
and  that  other  reality,  our  own  true  spontaneous 
self.  Certainly  we  are  so  overloaded  and  dis- 
eased with  Ideas  that  we  can't  get  well  in  a  min- 
ute. But  we  can  set  our  faces  stubbornly  against 
the  disease,  once  we  recognize  it.  The  disease 
of  love,  the  disease  of  "spirit,"  the  disease  of 
niceness  and  benevolence  and  feeling  good  on 
our  own  behalf  and  good  on  somebody  else's 
behalf.  Pah,  it  is  all  a  gangrene.  We  can 
retreat  upon  the  proud,  isolate  self,  and  remain 
there  alone,  like  lepers,  till  we  are  cured  of  this 
ghastly  white  disease  of  self-conscious  idealism. 

And  we  really  can  make  a  move  on  our  chil- 
dren's  behalf.     We   really  can    refrain   from 


ii6       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

thrusting  our  children  any  more  into  those  hot- 
beds of  the  self-conscious  disease,  schools.  We 
really  can  prevent  their  eating  much  more  of 
the  tissues  of  leprosy,  newspapers  and  books.  For 
a  time,  there  should  be  no  compulsory  teaching 
to  read  and  write  at  all.  The  great  mass  of  hu- 
manity should  never  learn  to  read  and  write — 
never. 

And  instead  of  this  gnawing,  gnawing  disease 
of  mental  consciousness  and  awful,  unhealthy 
craving  for  stimulus  and  for  action,  we  must 
substitute  genuine  action.  The  war  was  really 
not  a  bad  beginning.  But  we  went  out  under  the 
banners  of  idealism,  and  now  the  men  are  home 
again,  the  virus  is  more  active  than  ever,  rotting 
their  very  souls. 

The  mass  of  the  people  will  never  mentally 
understand.  But  they  will  soon  instinctively 
fall  into  line. 

Let  us  substitute  action,  all  kinds  of  action, 
for  the  mass  of  people,  in  place  of  mental  activ- 
ity. Even  twelve  hours'  work  a  day  is  better 
than  a  newspaper  at  four  in  the  afternoon  and  a 
grievance  for  the  rest  of  the  evening.  But  par- 
ticularly let  us  take  care  of  the  children.  At 
all  cost,  try  to  prevent  a  girPs  mind  from  dwell- 
ing on   herself,      Make   her   act,   work,    play: 


FIRST  STEPS  IN  EDUCATION  117 

assume  a  rule  over  her  girlhood.  Let  her  learn 
the  domestic  arts  in  their  perfection.  Let  us 
even  artificially  set  her  to  spin  and  weave.  Any- 
thing to  keep  her  busy,  to  prevent  her  reading 
and  becoming  self-conscious.  Let  us  awake  as 
soon  as  possible  to  the  repulsive  machine  qual- 
ity of  machine-made  things.  They  smell  of 
death.  And  let  us  insist  that  the  home  is  sacred, 
the  hearth,  and  the  very  things  of  the  home. 
Then  keep  the  girls  apart  from  any  familiarity 
or  being  "pals"  with  the  boys.  The  nice  clean 
intimacy  which  we  now  so  admire  between  the 
sexes  is  sterilizing.  It  makes  neuters.  Later  on, 
no  deep,  magical  sex-life  is  possible. 

The  same  with  the  boys.  First  and  foremost 
establish  a  rule  over  them,  a  proud,  harsh,  manly 
rule.  Make  them  know  that  at  every  moment 
they  are  in  the  shadow  of  a  proud,  strong,  adult 
authority.  Let  them  be  soldiers,  but  as  individ- 
uals not  machine  units.  There  are  wars  in  the 
future,  great  wars,  which  not  machines  will 
finally  decide,  but  the  free,  indomitable  life 
spirit.  No  more  wars  under  the  banners  of  the 
ideal,  and  in  the  spirit  of  sacrifice.  But  wars 
in  the  strength  of  individual  men.  And  then, 
pure  individualistic  training  to  fight,  and  prep- 
aration for  a  whole  new  way  of  life,  a  new  so- 


ii8       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

ciety.  Put  money  into  its  place,  and  science  and 
industry.  The  leaders  must  stand  for  life,  and 
they  must  not  ask  the  simple  followers  to  point 
out  the  direction.  When  the  leaders  assume  re- 
sponsibility they  relieve  the  followers  forever  of 
the  burden  of  finding  a  way.  Relieved  of  this 
hateful  incubus  of  responsibility  for  general 
affairs,  the  populace  can  again  become  free  and 
happy  and  spontaneous,  leaving  matters  to  their 
superiors.  No  newspapers — the  mass  of  the 
people  never  learning  to  read.  The  evolving 
once  more  of  the  great  spontaneous  gestures  of 
life. 

We  can't  go  on  as  we  are.  Poor,  nerve- 
worn  creatures,  fretting  our  lives  away  and 
hating  to  die  because  we  have  never  lived.  The 
secret  is,  to  commit  into  the  hands  of  the  sacred 
few  the  responsibility  which  now  lies  like  tor- 
ture on  the  mass.  Let  the  few,  the  leaders,  be 
increasingly  responsible  for  the  whole.  And  let 
the  mass  be  free:  free,  save  for  the  choice  of 
leaders. 

Leaders — this  is  what  mankind  is  craving  for. 

But  men  must  be  prepared  to  obey,  body  and 
soul,  once  they  have  chosen  the  leader.  And  let 
them  choose  the  leader  for  life's  sake  only. 

Begin  then — there  is  a  beginning. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EDUCATION  AND  SEX   IN   MAN,  WOMAN 
AND  CHILD 

THE  one  thing  we  have  to  avoid,  then,  even 
while  we  carry  on  our  own  old  process  of 
education,  is  this  development  of  the  powers  of 
so-called  self-expression  in  a  child.  Let  us  be- 
ware of  artificially  stimulating  his  self-con- 
sciousness and  his  so-called  imagination.  All 
that  we  do  is  to  pervert  the  child  into  a  ghastly 
state  of  self-consciousness,  making  him  affect- 
edly try  to  show  off  as  we  wish  him  to  show  off. 
The  moment  the  least  little  trace  of  self-con- 
sciousness enters  in  a  child,  good-by  to  every- 
thing except  falsity. 

Much  better  just  pound  away  at  the  ABC  and 
simple  arithmetic  and  so  on.  The  modern  meth- 
ods do  make  children  sharp,  give  them  a  sort  of 
slick  finesse,  but  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  mis- 
chief. It  ends  in  the  great  "unrest"  of  a  nerv- 
ous, hysterical  proletariat.  Begin  to  teach  a  child 

of  five  to  "understand."    To  understand  the  sun 

119 


I20       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

and  moon  and  daisy  and  the  secrets  of  procrea- 
tion, bless  your  soul.  Understanding  all  the 
way. — And  when  the  child  is  twenty  he'll  have 
a  hysterical  understanding  of  his  own  invented 
grievance,  and  there's  an  end  of  him.  Under- 
standing is  the  devil. 

A  child  mustn't  understand  things.  He  must 
have  them  his  own  way.  His  vision  isn't  ours. 
\Mien  a  boy  of  eight  sees  a  horse,  he  doesn't  see 
the  correct  biological  object  we  intend  him  to 
see.  He  sees  a  big  living  presence  of  no  particu- 
lar shape  with  hair  dangling  from  its  neck  and 
four  legs.  If  he  puts  two  eyes  in  the  profile,  he 
is  quite  right.  Because  he  does  not  see  ^^ith  op- 
tical, photographic  vision.  The  image  on  his 
retina  is  not  the  image  of  his  consciousness.  The 
image  on  his  retina  just  does  not  go  into  him. 
His  unconsciousness  is  filled  with  a  strong,  dark, 
vague  prescience  of  a  powerful  presence,  a  two- 
eyed,  four-legged,  long-maned  presence  loom- 
ing imminent 

And  to  force  the  boy  to  see  a  correct  one-eyed 
horse-profile  is  just  like  pasting  a  placard  in 
front  of  his  vision.  It  simply  kills  his  inward 
seeing.  We  don't  <u:ant  him  to  see  a  proper 
horse.  The  child  is  not  a  little  camera.  He  is  a 
small  vital  organism  which  has  direct  dynamic 


EDUCATION  121 

rapport  with  the  objects  of  the  outer  universe. 
He  perceives  from  his  breast  and  his  abdomen, 
with  deep-sunken  realism,  the  elemental  nature 
of  the  creature.  So  that  to  this  day  a  Noah's  Ark 
tree  is  more  real  than  a  Corot  tree  or  a  Constable 
tree:  and  a  flat  Noah's  Ark  cow  has  a  deeper 
vital  reality  than  even  a  Cuyp  cow. 

The  mode  of  vision  is  not  one  and  final.  The 
mode  of  vision  is  manifold.  And  the  optical 
image  is  a  mere  vibrating  blur  to  a  child — and, 
indeed,  to  a  passionate  adult  In  this  vibrating 
blur  the  soul  sees  its  own  true  correspondent  It 
sees,  in  a  cow,  horns  and  squareness,  and  a  long 
tail.  It  sees,  for  a  horse,  a  mane,  and  a  long 
face,  round  nose,  and  four  legs.  And  in  each 
case  a  darkly  vital  presence.  Now  horns  and 
squareness  and  a  long  thin  ox-tail,  these  are  the 
fearful  and  wonderful  elements  of  the  cow- 
form,  w^hich  the  dynamic  soul  perfectly  per- 
ceives. The  ideal-image  is  just  outside  nature, 
for  a  child — something  false.  In  a  picture,  a 
child  wants  elemental  recognition,  and  not  cor- 
rectness or  expression,  or  least  of  all,  what  we 
call  understanding.  The  child  distorts  inev- 
itably and  dynamically.  But  the  dynamic  ab- 
straction is  more  than  mental.  If  a  huge  eye 
sits  in  the  middle  of  the  cheek,  in  a  child's  draw- 


122       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

ing,  this  shows  that  the  deep  dynamic  conscious- 
ness of  the  eye,  its  relative  exaggeration,  is  the 
life-truth,  even  if  it  is  a  scientific  falsehood. 

On  the  other  hand,  what  on  earth  is  the  good 
of  saying  to  a  child,  ''The  world  is  a  flattened 
sphere,  like  an  orange."  It  is  simply  pernicious. 
You  had  much  better  say  the  world  is  a  poached 
egg  in  a  frying  pan.  That  might  have  some 
dynamic  meaning.  The  only  thing  about  the 
flattened  orange  is  that  the  child  just  sees  this 
orange  disporting  itself  in  blue  air,  and  never 
bothers  to  associate  it  with  the  earth  he  treads 
on.  And  yet  It  would  be  so  much  better  for  the 
mass  of  mankind  if  they  never  heard  of  the  flat- 
tened sphere.  They  should  never  be  told  that 
the  earth  is  round.  It  only  makes  everything 
unreal  to  them.  They  are  balked  in  their  im- 
pression of  the  flat  good  earth,  they  can't  get 
over  this  sphere  business,  they  live  in  a  fog  of 
abstraction,  and  nothing  is  anything.  Save  for 
purposes  of  abstraction,  the  earth  is  a  great  plain, 
with  hills  and  valleys.  Why  force  abstractions 
and  kill  the  reality,  when  there's  no  need? 

As  for  children,  will  we  never  realize  that 
their  abstractions  are  never  based  on  observa- 
tions, but  on  subjective  exaggerations?  If  there 
is  an  eye  in  the  face,  the  face  is  all  eye.    It  is  the 


EDUCATION  123 

child  soul  which  cannot  get  over  the  mystery  of 
the  eye.  If  there  is  a  tree  in  a  landscape,  the 
landscape  is  all  tree.  Always  this  partial  focus. 
The  attempt  to  make  a  child  focus  for  a  whole 
view — which  is  really  a  generalization  and  an 
adult  abstraction — is  simply  wicked.  Yet  the 
first  thing  we  do  is  to  set  a  child  making  relief- 
maps  in  clay,  for  example:  of  his  own  district. 
Imbecility!  He  has  not  even  the  faintest  im- 
pression of  the  total  hill  on  which  his  home 
stands.  A  steepness  going  up  to  a  door — and 
front  garden  railings — and  perhaps  windows. 
That's  the  lot. 

The  top  and  bottom  of  it  is,  that  it  is  a  crime 
to  teach  a  child  anything  at  all,  school-wise.  It 
is  just  evil  to  collect  children  together  and  teach 
them  through  the  head.  It  causes  '  absolute 
starvation  in  the  dynamic  centers,  and  sterile 
substitute  of  brain  knowledge  is  all  the  gain. 
The  children  of  the  middle  classes  are  so  vitally 
impoverished,  that  the  miracle  is  they  continue 
to  exist  at  all.  The  children  of  the  lower  classes 
do  better,  because  they  escape  into  the  streets. 
But  even  the  children  of  the  proletariat  are  now 
infected. 

And,  of  course,  as  my  critics  point  out,  under 
all  the  school-smarm  and  newspaper-cant,  man 


124       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

is  to-day  as  savage  as  a  cannibal,  and  more  dan- 
gerous. The  living  dynamic  self  is  denatural- 
ized instead  of  being  educated. 

We  talk  about  education — leading  forth  the 
natural  intelligence  of  a  child.  But  ours  is  just 
the  opposite  of  leading  forth.  It  is  a  ramming 
in  of  brain  facts  through  the  head,  and  a  conse- 
quent distortion,  suffocation,  and  starvation  of 
the  primary  centers  of  consciousness.  A  nice 
day  of  reckoning  weVe  got  in  front  of  us. 

Let  us  lead  forth,  by  all  means.  But  let  us  not 
have  mental  knowledge  before  us  as  the  goal  of 
the  leading.  Much  less  let  us  make  of  it  a  vicious 
circle  in  which  we  lead  the  unhappy  child-mind, 
like  a  cow  in  a  ring  at  a  fair.  We  don't  want  to 
educate  children  so  that  they  may  understand. 
Understanding  is  a  fallacy  and  a  vice  in  most 
people.  I  don't  even  want  my  child  to  know, 
much  less  to  understand.  I  don't  want  my  child 
to  know  that  five  fives  are  twenty-five,  any  more 
than  I  want  my  child  to  wear  my  hat  or  my 
boots.  I  don't  want  my  child  to  know.  If  he 
wants  five  fives  let  him  count  them  on  his  fingers. 
As  for  his  little  mind,  give  it  a  rest,  and  let  his 
dynamic  self  be  alert.  He  will  ask  ^Vhy"  often 
enough.  But  he  more  often  asks  why  the  sun 
shines,  or  why  men  have  mustaches,  or  why 


EDUCATION  125 

grass  is  green,  than  anything  sensible.  Most  of 
a  child's  questions  are,  and  should  be,  unanswer- 
able. They  are  not  questions  at  all.  They  are 
exclamations  of  wonder,  they  are  remarks  half- 
sceptically  addressed.  When  a  child  says,  "Why 
is  grass  green?"  he  half  implies.  "Is  it  really 
green,  or  is  it  just  taking  me  in?"  And  we  sol- 
emnly begin  to  prate  about  chlorophyll.  Oh, 
imbeciles,  idiots,  inexcusable  owls! 

The  whole  of  a  child's  development  goes  on 
from  the  great  dynamic  centers,  and  is  basically 
non-mental.  To  introduce  mental  activity  is  to 
arrest  the  dynamic  activity,  and  stultify  true 
dynamic  development.  By  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  our  young  people  are  helpless,  hopeless,  self- 
less, floundering  mental  entities,  with  nothing  in 
front  of  them,  because  they  have  been  starved 
from  the  roots,  systematically,  for  twenty-one 
years,  and  fed  through  the  head.  They  have  had 
all  their  mental  excitements,  sex  and  everything, 
all  through  the  head,  and  when  it  comes  to  the 
actual  thing,  why,  there's  nothing  in  it.  Blase, 
The  affective  centers  have  been  exhausted  from 
the  head. 

Before  the  age  of  fourteen,  children  should 
be  taught  only  to  move,  to  act,  to  do.  And  they 
should  be  taught  as  little  as  possible  even  of  this. 


126       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

Adults  simply  cannot  and  do  not  know  any  more 
what  the  mode  of  childish  intelligence  is.  Adults 
always  interfere.  They  always  force  the  adult 
mental  mode.  Therefore  children  must  be  pre- 
served from  adult  instructions. 

Make  a  child  work — yes.  Make  it  do  little 
jobs.  Keep  a  fine  and  delicate  and  fierce  dis- 
cipline, so  that  the  little  jobs  are  performed  as 
perfectly  as  is  consistent  with  the  child's  nature. 
Make  the  child  alert,  proud,  and  becoming  in 
its  movements.  Make  it  know  very  definitely 
that  it  shall  not  and  must  not  trespass  on  other 
people's  privacy  or  patience.  Teach  it  songs, 
tell  it  tales.  But  never  instruct  it  school-wise. 
And  mostly,  leave  it  alone,  send  it  away  to  be 
with  other  children  and  to  get  in  and  out  of  mis- 
chief, and  in  and  out  of  danger.  Forget  your 
child  altogether  as  much  as  possible. 

All  this  is  the  active  and  strenuous  business  of 
parents,  and  must  not  be  shelved  off  on  to 
strangers.  It  is  the  business  of  parents  mentally 
to  forget  but  dynamically  never  to  forsake  their 
children. 

It  is  no  use  expecting  parents  to  know  why 
schools  are  closed,  and  why  they,  the  parents, 
must  be  quite  responsible  for  their  own  children 
during  the  first  ten  years.    If  it  is  quite  useless  to 


EDUCATION  127 

expect  parents  to  understand  a  theory  of  rela- 
tivity, much  less  will  they  understand  the  devel- 
opment of  the  dynamic  consciousness.  But  v^hy 
should  they  understand?  It  is  the  business  of 
very  few  to  understand  and  for  the  mass,  it  is 
their  business  to  believe  and  not  to  bother,  but  to 
be  honorable  and  humanly  to  fulfill  their  human 
responsibilities.  To  give  active  obedience  to 
their  leaders,  and  to  possess  their  own  souls  in 
natural  pride. 

Some  must  understand  why  a  child  is  not  to  be 
mentally  educated.  Some  must  have  a  faint  ink- 
ling of  the  processes  of  consciousness  during  the 
first  fourteen  years.  Some  must  know  what  a 
child  beholds,  when  it  looks  at  a  horse,  and  what 
it  means  when  it  says,  ^Why  is  grass  green?" 
The  answer  to  this  question,  by  the  way,  is  "Be- 
cause it  is." 

The  interplay  of  the  four  dynamic  centers  fol- 
lows no  one  conceivable  law.  Mental  activity 
continues  according  to  a  law  of  co-relation.  But 
there  is  no  logical  or  rational  co-relation  in  the 
dynamic  consciousness.  It  pulses  on  inconse- 
quential, and  it  would  be  impossible  to  deter- 
mine any  sequence.  Out  of  the  very  lack  of 
sequence  in  dynamic  consciousness  does  the  indi- 
vidual himself  develop.    The  dynamic  abstrac* 


128       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

tion  of  a  child's  precepts  follows  no  mental  law, 
and  even  no  law  which  can  ever  be  mentally 
propounded.  And  this  is  why  it  is  utterly  per- 
nicious to  set  a  child  making  a  clay  relief-map 
of  its  own  district,  or  to  ask  a  child  to  draw  con- 
clusions from  given  observations.  Dynamically, 
a  child  draws  no  conclusions.  All  things  still 
remain  dynamically  possible.  A  conclusion 
drawn  is  a  nail  in  the  coffin  of  a  child's  develop- 
ing being.  Let  a  child  make  a  clay  landscape,  if 
it  likes.  But  entirely  according  to  its  own  fancy, 
and  without  conclusions  drawn.  Only,  let  the 
landscape  be  vividly  made — always  the  disci- 
pline of  the  soul's  full  attention.  ^'Oh,  but  where 
are  the  factory  chimneys?" — or  else — ''Why 
have  you  left  out  the  gas-works?"  or  "Do  you 
call  that  sloppy  thing  a  church?"  The  particu- 
lar focus  should  be  vivid,  and  the  record  in  some 
way  true.  The  soul  must  give  earnest  attention, 
that  is  all. 

And  so  actively  disciplined,  the  child  develops 
for  the  first  ten  years.  We  need  not  be  afraid 
of  letting  children  see  the  passions  and  reactions 
of  adult  life.  Only  we  must  not  strain  the  sym- 
pathies of  a  child,  in  any  direction,  particularly 
the  direction  of  love  and  pity.  Nor  must  we  in- 
troduce the  fallacy  of  right  and  wrong.    Spon- 


EDUCATION  129 

taneous  distaste  should  take  the  place  of  right 
and  wrong.  And  least  of  all  must  there  be  a  cry: 
"You  see,  dear,  you  don't  understand.  When 
you  are  older — "  A  child's  sagacity  is  better 
than  an  adult  understanding,  anyhow. 

Of  course  it  is  ten  times  criminal  to  tell  young 
children  facts  about  sex,  or  to  implicate  them  in 
adult  relationships.  A  child  has  a  strong  evanes- 
cent sex  consciousness.  It  instinctively  writes 
impossible  words  on  back  walls.  But  this  is  not 
a  fully  conscious  mental  act.  It  is  a  kind  of 
dream  act — quite  natural.  The  child's  curious, 
shadowy,  indecent  sex-knowledge  is  quite  in  the 
course  of  nature.  And  does  nobody  any  harm 
at  all.  Adults  had  far  better  not  notice  it.  But 
if  a  child  sees  a  cockerel  tread  a  hen,  or  two  dogs 
coupling,  well  and  good.  It  should  see  these 
things.  Only,  without  comment.  Let  nothing 
be  exaggeratedly  hidden.  By  instinct,  let  us  pre- 
serve the  decent  privacies.  But  if  a  child  oc- 
casionally sees  its  parent  nude,  taking  a  bath,  all 
the  better.  Or  even  sitting  in  the  W.  C.  Exag- 
gerated secrecy  is  bad.  But  indecent  exposure  is 
also  very  bad.  But  worst  of  all  is  dragging  in 
the  mental  consciousness  of  these  shadowy 
dynamic  realities. 

In  the  same  way,  to  talk  to  a  child  about  an 


130       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

adult  is  vile.  Let  adults  keep  their  adult  feel- 
ings and  communications  for  people  of  their 
own  age.  But  if  a  child  sees  its  parents  violently 
quarrel,  all  the  better.  There  must  be  storms. 
And  a  child's  dynamic  understanding  is  far 
deeper  and  more  penetrating  than  our  sophis- 
ticated interpretation.  But  never  make  a  child 
a  party  to  adult  affairs.  Never  drag  the  child 
in.  Refuse  its  sympathy  on  such  occasions.  Al- 
ways treat  it  as  if  it  had  no  business  to  hear,  even 
if  it  is  present  and  must  hear.  Truly,  it  has  no 
business  mentally  to  hear.  And  the  dynamic 
soul  will  always  weigh  things  up  and  dispose  of 
them  properly,  if  there  be  no  interference  of 
adult  comment  or  adult  desire  for  sympathy.  It 
is  despicable  for  any  one  parent  to  accept  a 
child's  sympathy  against  the  other  parent.  And 
the  one  who  received  the  sympathy  is  always 
more  contemptible  than  the  one  who  is  hated. 

Of  course  so  many  children  are  born  to-day 
unnaturally  mentally  awake  and  alive  to  adult 
affairs,  that  there  is  nothing  left  but  to  tell  them 
everything,  crudely:  or  else,  much  better,  to  say: 
"Ah,  get  out,  you  know  too  much,  you  make  me 
sick." 

To  return  to  the  question  of  sex.  A  child  is 
born  sexed.    A  child  is  either  male  or  female,  in 


EDUCATION  131 

the  whole  of  its  psyche  and  physique  is  either 
male  or  female.  Every  single  living  cell  is  either 
male  or  female,  and  will  remain  either  male  or 
female  as  long  as  life  lasts.  And  every  single 
cell  in  every  male  child  is  male,  and  every  cell 
in  every  female  child  is  female.  The  talk  about 
a  third  sex,  or  about  the  indeterminate  sex,  is 
just  to  pervert  the  issue. 

Biologically,  it  is  true,  the  rudimentary 
formation  of  both  sexes  is  found  in  every  indi- 
vidual. That  doesn't  mean  that  every  individual 
is  a  bit  of  both,  or  either,  ad  lib.  After  a  suffi- 
cient period  of  idealism,  men  become  hopelessly 
self-conscious.  That  is,  the  great  afifective  cen- 
ters no  longer  act  spontaneously,  but  always  wait 
for  control  from  the  head.  This  always  breeds 
a  great  fluster  in  the  psyche,  and  the  poor  self- 
conscious  individual  cannot  help  posing  and 
posturing.  Our  ideal  has  taught  us  to  be  gentle 
and  wistful:  rather  girlish  and  yielding,  and 
very  yielding  in  our  sympathies.  In  fact,  many 
young  men  feel  so  very  like  what  they  imagine 
a  girl  must  feel,  that  hence  they  draw  the  con- 
clusion that  they  must  have  a  large  share  of 
female  sex  inside  them.    False  conclusion. 

These  girlish  men  have  often,  to-day,  the  finest 
maleness,  once  it  is  put  to  the  test.    How  is  it 


132       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

then  that  they  feel,  and  look,  so  girlish?  It  is 
largely  a  question  of  the  direction  of  the  polar- 
ized flow.  Our  ideal  has  taught  us  to  be  so  lov- 
ing and  so  submissive  and  so  yielding  in  our  sym- 
pathy, that  the  mode  has  become  automatic  in 
many  men.  Now  in  what  we  will  call  the  "nat- 
ural" mode,  man  has  his  positivity  in  the  voli- 
tional centers,  and  women  in  the  sympathetic. 
In  fulfilling  the  Christian  love  ideal,  however, 
men  have  reversed  this.  Man  has  assumed 
the  gentle,  all-sympathetic  role,  and  wom- 
an has  become  the  energetic  party,  with  the 
authority  in  her  hands.  The  male  is  the  sensi- 
tive, sympathetic  nature,  the  woman  the  active, 
effective,  authoritative.  So  that  the  male  acts 
as  the  passive,  or  recipient  pole  of  attraction,  the 
female  as  the  active,  positive,  exertive  pole,  in 
human  relations.  Which  is  a  reversal  of  the  old 
flow.  The  woman  is  now  the  initiator,  man  the 
responder.  They  seem  to  play  each  other's 
parts.  But  man  is  purely  male,  playing  woman's 
part,  and  woman  is  purely  female,  however 
manly.  The  gulf  between  Heliogabalus,  or  the 
most  womanly  man  on  earth,  and  the  most  manly 
woman,  is  just  the  same  as  ever:  just  the  same 
old  gulf  between  the  sexes.  The  man  is  male, 
the  woman  is  female.    Only  they  are  playing  one 


EDUCATION  133 

another's  parts,  as  they  must  at  certain  periods. 
The  dynamic  polarity  has  swung  around. 

If  we  look  a  little  closer,  we  can  define  this 
positive  and  negative  business  better.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  positive  and  negative,  passive  and 
active  cuts  both  ways.  If  the  man,  as  thinker 
and  doer,  is  active,  or  positive,  and  the  woman 
negative,  then,  on  the  other  hand,  as  the  initiator 
of  emotion,  of  feeling,  and  of  sympathetic  un- 
derstanding the  woman  is  positive,  the  man  neg- 
ative. The  man  may  be  the  initiator  in  action, 
but  the  woman  is  initiator  in  emotion.  The  man 
has  the  initiative  as  far  as  voluntary  activity 
goes,  and  the  woman  the  initiative  as  far  as  sym- 
pathetic activity  goes.  In  love,  it  is  the  woman 
naturally  who  loves,  the  man  who  is  loved.  In 
love,  woman  is  the  positive,  man  the  negative. 
It  is  woman  who  asks,  in  love,  and  man  who  an- 
swers. In  life,  the  reverse  is  the  case.  In  know- 
ing and  in  doing,  man  is  positive  and  woman 
negative :  man  initiates,  and  woman  lives  up  to  it. 

Naturally  this  nicely  arranged  order  of  things 
may  be  reversed.  Action  and  utterance,  which 
are  male,  are  polarized  against  feeling,  emotion, 
which  are  female.  And  which  is  positive,  which 
negative?  Was  man,  the  eternal  protagonist, 
born  of  woman,  from  her  womb  of  fathomless 


134       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

emotion?  Or  was  woman,  with  her  deep  womb 
of  emotion,  born  from  the  rib  of  active  man,  the 
first  created?  Man,  the  doer,  the  knower,  the 
original  in  being,  is  he  lord  of  life?  Or  is  woman, 
the  great  Mother,  who  bore  us  from  the  womb 
of  love,  is  she  the  supreme  Goddess? 

This  is  the  question  of  all  time.  And  as  long 
as  man  and  woman  endure,  so  will  the  answer  be 
given,  first  one  way,  then  the  other.  Man,  as 
the  utterer,  usually  claims  that  Eve  was  created 
out  of  his  spare  rib:  from  the  field  of  the  crea- 
tive, upper  dynamic  consciousness,  that  is.  But 
woman,  as  soon  as  she  gets  a  word  in,  points  to 
the  fact  that  man  inevitably,  poor  darling,  is  the 
issue  of  his  mother's  womb.    So  the  battle  rages. 

But  some  men  always  agree  with  the  woman. 
Some  men  always  yield  to  woman  the  creative 
positivity.  And  in  certain  periods,  such  as  the 
present,  the  majority  of  men  concur  in  regard- 
ing woman  as  the  source  of  life,  the  first  term  in 
creation:  woman,  the  mother,  the  prime  being. 

And  then,  the  whole  polarity  shifts  over.  Man 
still  remains  the  doer  and  thinker.  But  he  is 
so  only  in  the  service  of  emotional  and  procrea- 
tive  woman.  His  highest  moment  is  now  the 
emotional  moment  when  he  gives  himself  up  to 
the  woman,  when  he  forms  the  perfect  answer 


EDUCATION  135 

for  her  great  emotional  and  procreative  asking. 
All  his  thinking,  all  his  activity  in  the  world 
only  contributes  to  this  great  moment,  when  he 
is  fulfilled  in  the  emotional  passion  of  the  wom- 
an, the  birth  of  rebirth,  as  Whitman  calls  it. 
In  his  consummation  in  the  emotional  passion 
of  a  woman,  man  is  reborn,  which  is  quite  true. 

And  there  is  the  point  at  which  we  all  now 
stick.  Life,  thought,  and  activity,  all  are  de- 
voted truly  to  the  great  end  of  Woman,  wife 
and  mother. 

Man  has  now  entered  on  to  his  negative  mode. 
Now.  his  consummation  is  in  feeling,  not  in  ac- 
tion. Now,  his  activity  is  all  of  the  domestic 
order  and  all  his  thought  goes  to  proving  that 
nothing  matters  except  that  birth  shall  continue 
and  woman  shall  rock  in  the  nest  of  this  globe 
like  a  bird  who  covers  her  eggs  in  some  tall  tree. 
Man  is  the  f etcher,  the  carrier,  the  sacrifice,  the 
crucified,  and  the  reborn  of  woman. 

This  being  so,  the  whole  tendency  of  his  nature 
changes.  Instead  of  being  assertive  and  rather 
insentient,  he  becomes  wavering  and  sensitive. 
He  begins  to  have  as  many  feelings — nay,  more 
than  a  woman.  His  heroism  is  all  in  altruistic 
endurance.  He  worships  pity  and  tenderness 
and  weakness,  even  in  himself.     In  short,  he 


t 

136       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

takes  on  very  largely  the  original  role  of  woman. 
Woman  meanwhile  becomes  the  fearless,  in- 
wardly relentless,  determined  positive  party. 
She  grips  the  responsibility.  The  hand  that 
rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world.  Nay,  she 
makes  man  discover  that  cradles  should  not  be 
rocked,  in  order  that  her  hands  may  be  left  free. 
She  is  now  a  queen  of  the  earth,  and  inwardly  a 
fearsome  tyrant.  She  keeps  pity  and  tenderness 
emblazoned  on  her  banners.  But  God  help  the 
man  whom  she  pities.  Ultimately  she  tears  him 
to  bits. 

Therefore  we  see  the  reversal  of  the  old  poles. 
Man  becomes  the  emotional  party,  woman  the 
positive  and  active.  Man  begins  to  show  strong 
signs  of  the  peculiarly  strong  passive  sex  desire, 
the  desire  to  be  taken,  which  is  considered  char- 
acteristic of  woman.  Man  begins  to  have  all  the 
feelings  of  woman — or  all  the  feelings  which  he 
attributed  to  woman.  He  becomes  more  fem- 
inine than  woman  ever  was,  and  worships  his 
own  femininity,  calling  it  the  highest.  In  short, 
he  begins  to  exhibit  all  signs  of  sexual  complex- 
ity. He  begins  to  imagine  he  really  is  half 
female.  And  certainly  woman  seems  very  male. 
So  the  hermaphrodite  fallacy  revives  again. 

But  it  is  all  a  fallacy.     Man,  in  the  midst  of 


EDUCATION  137 

all  his  effeminacy,  is  still  male  and  nothing  but 
male.  And  woman,  though  she  harangue  in 
Parliament  or  patrol  the  streets  with  a  helmet 
on  her  head,  is  still  completely  female.  They 
are  only  playing  each  other's  roles,  because  the 
poles  have  swung  into  reversion.  The  compass 
is  reversed.  But  that  doesn't  mean  that  the 
north  pole  has  become  the  south  pole,  or  that 
each  is  a  bit  of  both. 

Of  course  a  woman  should  stick  to  her  own 
natural  emotional  positivity.  But  then  man 
must  stick  to  his  own  positivity  of  being,  of  ac- 
tion, disinterested,  non-domestic,  male  action, 
which  is  not  devoted  to  the  increase  of  the 
female.  Once  man  vacates  his  camp  of  sincere, 
passionate  positivity  in  disinterested  being,  his 
supreme  responsibility  to  fulfill  his  own  pro- 
foundest  impulses,  with  reference  to  none  but 
God  or  his  own  soul,  not  taking  woman  into 
count  at  all,  in  this  primary  responsibility  to  his 
own  deepest  soul ;  once  man  vacates  this  strong 
citadel  of  his  own  genuine,  not  spurious,  divin- 
ity; then  in  comes  woman,  picks  up  the  scepter 
and  begins  to  conduct  a  rag-time  band. 

Man  remains  man,  however  he  may  put  on 
wistfulness  and  tenderness  like  petticoats,  and 
sensibilities  like  pearl  ornaments.     Your  sen- 


138       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

sitive  little  big-eyed  boy,  so  much  more  gentle 
and  loving  than  his  harder  sister,  is  male  for  all 
that,  believe  me.  Perhaps  evilly  male,  so 
mothers  may  learn  to  their  cost:  and  wives  still 
more. 

Of  course  there  should  be  a  great  balance 
between  the  sexes.  Man,  in  the  daytime,  must 
follow  his  own  soul's  greatest  impulse,  and  give 
himself  to  life-work  and  risk  himself  to  death. 
It  is  not  woman  who  claims  the  highest  in  man. 
It  is  a  man's  own  religious  soul  that  drives  him 
on  beyond  woman,  to  his  supreme  activity.  For 
his  highest,  man  is  responsible  to  God  alone.  He 
may  not  pause  to  remember  that  he  has  a  life 
to  lose,  or  a  wife  and  children  to  leave.  He 
must  carry  forward  the  banner  of  life,  though 
seven  worlds  perish,  with  all  the  wives  and 
mothers  and  children  in  them.  Hence  Jesus, 
"Woman,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee?"  Every 
man  that  lives  has  to  say  it  again  to  his  wife  or 
mother,  once  he  has  any  work  or  mission  in  hand, 
that  comes  from  his  soul. 

But  again,  no  man  is  a  blooming  marvel  for 
twenty-four  hours  a  day.  Jesus  or  Napoleon  or 
any  other  of  them  ought  to  have  been  man 
enough  to  be  able  to  come  home  at  tea-time  and 
put  his  slippers  on  and  sit  under  the  spell  of  his 


EDUCATION  139 

wife.  For  there  you  are,  the  woman  has  her 
world,  her  positivity:  the  world  of  love,  of  emo- 
tion, of  sympathy.  And  it  behooves  every  man 
in  his  hour  to  take  off  his  shoes  and  relax  and 
give  himself  up  to  his  woman  and  her  world. 
Not  to  give  up  his  purpose.  But  to  give  up 
himself  for  a  time  to  her  who  is  his  mate. — And 
so  it  is  one  detests  the  clock-work  Kant,  and  the 
petit-bourgeois  Napoleon  divorcing  his  Jose- 
phine for  a  Hapsburg — or  even  Jesus,  with  his 
'Woman,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee?" — He 
might  have  added  ''just  now." — ^They  were  all 
failures. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   BIRTH   OF   SEX 

THE  last  chapter  was  a  chapter  of  semi- 
digression.  We  now  return  to  the  straight 
course.  Is  the  straightness  none  too  evident? 
Ah  well,  it's  a  matter  of  relativity.  A  child  is 
born  with  one  sex  only,  and  remains  always 
single  in  his  sex.  There  is  no  intermingling, 
only  a  great  change  of  roles  is  possible.  But 
man  in  the  female  role  is  still  male. 

Sex — that  is  to  say,  maleness  and  f  emaleness — 
is  present  from  the  moment  of  birth,  and  in 
every  act  or  deed  of  every  child.  But  sex  in  the 
real  sense  of  dynamic  sexual  relationship,  this 
does  not  exist  in  a  child,  and  cannot  exist  until 
puberty  and  after.  True,  children  have  a  sort 
of  sex  consciousness.  Little  boys  and  little  girls 
may  even  commit  indecencies  together.  And 
still  it  is  nothing  vital.  It  is  a  sort  of  shadow 
activity,  a  sort  of  dream-activity.  It  has  no  very 
profound  effect. 

But  still,  boys  and  girls  should  be  kept  apart 

140 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  141 

as  much  as  possible,  that  they  may  have  some 
sort  of  respect  and  fear  for  the  gulf  that  lies 
between  them  in  nature,  and  for  the  great 
strangeness  which  each  has  to  offer  the  other, 
finally.  We  are  all  wrong  when  we  say  there  is 
no  vital  difference  between  the  sexes.  There  is 
every  difference.  Every  bit,  every  cell  in  a  boy 
is  male,  every  cell  is  female  in  a  woman,  and 
must  remain  so.  Women  can  never  feel  or  know 
as  men  do.  And  in  the  reverse  men  can  never 
feel  and  know,  dynamically,  as  women  do.  Man, 
acting  in  the  passive  or  feminine  polarity,  is 
still  man,  and  he  doesn't  have  one  single  un- 
manly feeling.  And  women,  when  they  speak 
and  write,  utter  not  one  single  word  that  men 
have  not  taught  them.  Men  learn  their  feelings 
from  women,  women  learn  their  mental  con- 
sciousness from  men.  And  so  it  will  ever  be. 
Meanwhile,  women  live  forever  by  feeling, 
and  men  live  forever  from  an  inherent  sense  of 
purpose.  Feeling  is  an  end  in  itself.  This  is 
unspeakable  truth  to  a  woman,  and  never  true 
for  one  minute  to  a  man.  When  man,  in  the 
Epicurean  spirit,  embraces  feeling,  he  makes 
himself  a  martyr  to  it — like  Maupassant  or  Os- 
car Wilde.  Woman  will  never  understand  the 
depth  of  the  spirit  of  purpose  in  man,  his  deeper 


142       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

spirit.  And  man  will  never  understand  the 
sacredness  of  feeling  to  woman.  Each  will  play 
at  the  other's  game,  but  they  will  remain  apart. 

The  whole  mode,  the  whole  everything  is 
really  different  in  man  and  woman.  Therefore 
we  should  keep  boys  and  girls  apart,  that  they 
are  pure  and  virgin  in  themselves.  On  mixing 
with  one  another,  in  becoming  familiar,  in  being 
"pals,"  they  lose  their  own  male  and  female  in- 
tegrity. And  they  lose  the  treasure  of  the  future, 
the  vital  sex  polarity,  the  dynamic  magic  of  life. 
For  the  magic  and  the  dynamism  rests  on 
otherness. 

For  actual  sex  is  a  vital  polarity.  And  a  po- 
larity which  rouses  into  action,  as  we  know,  at 
puberty. 

And  how?  As  we  know,  a  child  lives  from 
the  great  field  of  dynamic  consciousness  estab- 
lished between  the  four  poles  of  the  dynamic 
psyche,  two  great  poles  of  sympathy,  two  great 
poles  of  will.  The  solar  plexus  and  the  lumbar 
ganglion,  great  nerve-centers  below  the  dia- 
phragm, act  as  the  dynamic  origin  of  all  con- 
sciousness in  man,  and  are  immediately  polarized 
by  the  other  two  nerve-centers,  the  cardiac 
plexus  and  the  thoracic  ganglion  above  the  dia- 
phragm.   At  these  four  poles  the  whole  flow, 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  143 

both  within  the  individual  and  from  without 
him,  of  dynamic  consciousness  and  dynamic 
creative  relationship  is  centered.  These  four  first 
poles  constitute  the  first  field  of  dynamic  con- 
sciousness for  the  first  twelve  or  fourteen  years 
of  the  life  of  every  child. 

And  then  a  change  takes  place.  It  takes  place 
slowly,  gradually  and  inevitably,  utterly  beyond 
our  provision  or  control.  The  living  soul  is  un- 
folding itself  in  another  great  metamorphosis. 

What  happens,  in  the  biological  psyche,  is 
that  deeper  centers  of  consciousness  and  func- 
tion come  awake.  Deep  in  the  lower  body  the 
great  sympathetic  center,  the  hypogastric  plexus 
has  been  acting  all  the  time  in  a  kind  of  dream- 
automatism,  balanced  by  its  corresponding  vol- 
untary center,  the  sacral  ganglion.  At  the  age 
of  twelve  these  two  centers  begin  slowly  to 
rumble  awake,  with  a  deep  reverberant  force 
that  changes  the  whole  constitution  of  the  life 
of  the  individual. 

And  as  these  two  centers,  the  sympathetic 
center  of  the  deeper  abdomen,  and  the  voluntary 
center  of  the  loins,  gradually  sparkle  into  wake- 
ful, conscious  activity,  their  corresponding  poles 
are  roused  in  the  upper  body.  In  the  region  of 
the  throat  and  neck,  the  so-called  cervical  plex- 


144       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

uses  and  the  cervical  ganglia  dawn  into  activity. 

We  have  now  another  field  of  dawning 
dynamic  consciousness,  that  will  extend  far  be- 
yond the  first.  And  now  various  things  happen 
to  us.  First  of  all  actual  sex  establishes  its 
strange  and  troublesome  presence  within  us. 
This  is  the  massive  wakening  of  the  lower  body. 
And  then,  in  the  upper  body,  the  breasts  of  a 
woman  begin  to  develop,  her  throat  changes  its 
form.  And  in  the  man,  the  voice  breaks,  the 
beard  begins  to  grow  round  the  lips  and  on  to 
the  throat.  There  are  the  obvious  physiological 
changes  resulting  from  the  gradual  bursting 
into  free  activity  of  the  hypogastric  plexus  and 
the  sacral  ganglion,  in  the  lower  body,  and  of 
the  cervical  plexuses  and  ganglia  of  the  neck,  in 
the  upper  body. 

Why  the  growth  of  hair  should  start  at  the 
lower  and  upper  sympathetic  regions  we  cannot 
say.  Perhaps  for  protection.  Perhaps  to  pre- 
serve these  powerful  yet  supersensitive  nodes 
from  the  inclemency  of  changes  in  temperature, 
which  might  cause  .a  derangement.  Perhaps  for 
the  sake  of  protective  warning,  as  hair  warns 
when  it  is  touched.  Perhaps  for  a  screen  against 
various  dynamic  vibrations,  and  as  a  receiver  of 
other  suited  dynamic  vibrations.    It  may  be  that 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  145 

even  the  hair  of  the  head  acts  as  a  sensitive  vibra- 
tion-medium for  conveying  currents  of  physical 
and  vitalistic  activity  to  and  from  the  brain.  And 
perhaps  from  the  centers  of  intense  vital  sur- 
charge hair  springs  as  a  sort  of  annunciation  or 
declaration,  like  a  crest  of  life-assertion.  Per- 
haps all  these  things,  and  perhaps  others. 

But  with  the  bursting  awake  of  the  four  new 
poles  of  dynamic  consciousness  and  being,  change 
takes  place  in  everything,  the  features  now  be- 
gin to  take  individual  form,  the  limbs  develop 
out  of  the  soft  round  matrix  of  child-form,  the 
body  resolves  itself  into  distinctions.  A  strange 
creative  change  in  being  has  taken  place.  The 
child  before  puberty  is  quite  another  thing  from 
the  child  after  puberty.  Strange  indeed  is  this 
new  birth,  this  rising  from  the  sea  of  childhood 
into  a  new  being.  It  is  a  resurrection  which 
we  fear. 

And  now,  a  new  world,  a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth.  Now  new  relationships  are  formed, 
the  old  ones  retire  from  their  prominence.  Now 
mother  and  father  inevitably  give  way  before 
masters  and  mistresses,  brothers  and  sisters  yield 
to  friends.  This  is  the  period  of  Schwdrmerei,  of 
young  adoration  and  of  real  initial  friendships. 


146       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

A  child  before  puberty  has  playmates.  After 
puberty  he  has  friends  and  enemies. 

A  whole  new  field  of  passional  relationship. 
And  the  old  bonds  relaxing,  the  old  love  retreat- 
ing. The  father  and  mother  bonds  now  relax, 
though  they  never  break.  The  family  love 
wanes,  though  it  never  dies. 

It  is  the  hour  of  the  stranger.  Let  the  stranger 
now  enter  the  soul. 

And  it  is  the  first  hour  of  true  individuality, 
the  first  hour  of  genuine,  responsible  solitariness. 
A  child  knows  the  abyss  of  forlornness.  But  an 
adolescent  alone  knows  the  strange  pain  of  grow- 
ing into  his  own  isolation  of  individuality. 

All  this  change  is  an  agony  and  a  bliss.  It  is 
a  cataclysm  and  a  new  world.  It  is  our  most 
serious  hour,  perhaps.  And  yet  we  cannot  be 
responsible  for  it. 

Now  sex  comes  into  active  being.  Until  pu- 
berty, sex  is  submerged,  nascent,  incipient  only. 
After  puberty,  it  is  a  tremendous  factor. 

What  is  sex,  really?  We  can  never  say,  satis- 
factorily. But  we  know  so  much :  we  know  that 
it  is  a  dynamic  polarity  between  human  beings, 
and  a  circuit  of  force  always  flowing.  The  psy- 
choanalyst is  right  so  far.  There  can  be  no 
vivid   relation   between   two   adult  individuals 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  147 

which  does  not  consist  in  a  dynamic  polarized 
flow  of  vitalistic  force  or  magnetism  or  elec- 
tricity, call  it  what  you  will,  between  these  two 
people.  Yet  is  this  dynamic  flow  inevitably  sex- 
ual in  nature? 

This  is  the  moot  point  for  psychoanalysis. 
But  let  us  look  at  sex,  in  its  obvious  manifesta- 
tion. The  sexual  relation  between  man  and 
woman  consummates  in  the  act  of  coition.  Now 
what  is  the  act  of  coition?  We  know  its  func- 
tional purpose  of  procreation.  But,  after  all  our 
experience  and  all  our  poetry  and  novels  we 
know  that  the  procreative  purpose  of  sex  is,  to 
the  individual  man  and  woman,  just  a  side-show. 
To  the  individual,  the  act  of  coition  is  a  great 
psychic  experience,  a  vital  experience  of  tre- 
mendous importance.  On  this  vital  individual 
experience  the  life  and  very  being  of  the  indi- 
vidual largely  depends. 

But  what  is  the  experience?  Untellable. 
Only,  we  know  something.  We  know  that  in  the 
act  of  coition  the  blood  of  the  individual  man, 
acutely  surcharged  with  intense  vital  electricity 
— we  know  no  word,  so  say  "electricity,"  by  anal- 
ogy— rises  to  a  culmination,  in  a  tremendous 
magnetic  urge  towards  the  magnetic  blood  of 
the  female.    The  whole  of  the  living  blood  in 


148       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

the  two  individuals  forms  a  field  of  intense,  po- 
larized magnetic  attraction.  So,  the  two  poles 
must  be  brought  into  contact.  In  the  act  of  coi- 
tion, the  two  seas  of  blood  in  the  two  individuals, 
rocking  and  surging  towards  contact,  as  near  as 
possible,  clash  into  a  oneness.  A  great  flash  of 
interchange  occurs,  like  an  electric  spark  when 
two  currents  meet  or  like  lightning  out  of  the 
densely  surcharged  clouds.  There  is  a  lightning 
flash  which  passes  through  the  blood  of  both  in- 
dividuals, there  is  a  thunder  of  sensation  which 
rolls  in  diminishing  crashes  down  the  nerves  of 
each — and  then  the  tension  passes. 

The  two  individuals  are  separate  again.  But 
are  they  as  they  were  before?  Is  the  air  the 
same  after  a  thunderstorm  as  before?  No.  The 
air  is  as  it  were  new,  fresh,  tingling  with  new- 
ness. So  is  the  blood  of  man  and  woman  after 
successful  coition.  After  a  false  coition,  like 
prostitution,  there  is  not  newness  but  a  certain 
disintegration. 

But  after  coition,  the  actual  chemical  consti- 
tution of  the  blood  is  so  changed,  that  usually 
sleep  intervenes,  to  allow  the  time  for  chemical, 
biological  readjustment  through  the  whole 
system. 

So,  the  blood  is  changed  and  renewed,   re- 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  149 

freshed,  almost  recreated,  like  the  atmosphere 
after  thunder.  Out  of  the  newness  of  the  living 
blood  pass  the  new  strange  waves  which  beat 
upon  the  great  dynamic  centers  of  the  nerves: 
primarily  upon  the  hypogastric  plexus  and  the 
sacral  ganglion.  From  these  centers  rise  new 
impulses,  new  vision,  new  being,  rising  like 
Aphrodite  from  the  foam  of  the  new  tide  of 
blood.    And  so  individual  life  goes  on. 

Perhaps,  then,  we  will  allow  ourselves  to  say 
what,  in  psychic  individual  reality,  is  the  act  of 
coition.  It  is  the  bringing  together  of  the  sur- 
charged electric  blood  of  the  male  with  the  po- 
larized electric  blood  of  the  female,  with  the 
result  of  a  tremendous  flashing  interchange, 
which  alters  the  constitution  of  the  blood,  and 
the  very  quality  of  being,  in  both. 

And  this,  surely,  is  sex.  But  is  this  the  whole 
of  sex?    That  is  the  question. 

After  coition,  we  say  the  blood  is  renewed. 
We  say  that  from  the  new,  finely  sparkling  blood 
new  thrills  pass  into  the  great  afifective  centers 
of  the  lower  body,  new  thrills  of  feeling,  of  im- 
pulse, of  energy. — And  what  about  these  new 
thrills? 

Now,  a  new  story.  The  new  thrills  are  passed 
on  to  the  great  upper  centers  of  the  dynamic 


I50       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

body.  The  individual  polarity  now  changes, 
within  the  individual  system.  The  upper  cen- 
ters, cardiac  plexus  and  cervical  plexuses,  thor- 
acic ganglion  and  cervical  ganglia  now  assume 
positivity.  These,  the  upper  polarized  centers, 
have  now  the  positive  role  to  play,  the  solar  and 
the  hypogastric  plexuses,  the  lumbar  and  the 
sacral  ganglia,  these  have  the  submissive,  nega- 
tive role  for  the  time  being. 

And  what  then?  What  now,  that  the  upper 
centers  are  finely  active  in  positivity?  Now  it 
is  a  different  story.  Now  there  is  new  vision  in 
the  eyes,  new  hearing  in  the  ears,  new  voice  in 
the  throat  and  speech  on  the  lips.  Now  the  new 
song  rises,  the  brain  tingles  to  new  thought,  the 
heart  craves  for  new  activity. 

The  heart  craves  for  new  activity.  For  new 
collective  activity.  That  is,  for  a  new  polarized 
connection  with  other  beings,  other  men. 

Is  this  new  craving  for  polarized  communion 
with  others,  this  craving  for  a  new  unison,  is  it 
sexual,  like  the  original  craving  for  the  woman? 
Not  at  all.  The  whole  polarity  is  different. 
Now,  the  positive  poles  are  the  poles  of  the 
breast  and  shoulders  and  throat,  the  poles  of 
activity  and  full  consciousness.  Men,  being 
themselves  made  new  after  the  act  of  coition, 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  151 

wish  to  make  the  world  new.  A  new,  passionate 
polarity  springs  up  between  men  who  are  bent 
on  the  same  activity,  the  polarity  between  man 
and  woman  sinks  to  passivity.  It  is  now  day- 
time, and  time  to  forget  sex,  time  to  be  busy 
making  a  new  world. 

Is  this  new  polarity,  this  new  circuit  of  pas- 
sion between  comrades  and  co-workers,  is  this 
also  sexual?  It  is  a  vivid  circuit  of  polarized 
passion.    Is  it  hence  sex? 

It  is  not.  Because  what  are  the  poles  of  pos- 
itive connection? — the  upper,  busy  poles.  What 
is  the  dynamic  contact? — a  unison *in  spirit,  in 
understanding,  and  a  pure  commingling  in  one 
great  work,  A  mingling  of  the  individual  pas- 
sion into  one  great  purpose.  Now  this  is  also  a 
grand  consummation  for  men,  this  mingling  of 
many  with  one  great  impassioned  purpose.  But 
is  this  sex?  Knowing  what  sex  is,  can  we  call 
this  other  also  sex?    We  cannot. 

This  meeting  of  many  in  one  great  passionate 
purpose  is  not  sex,  and  should  never  be  confused 
with  sex.  It  is  a  great  motion  in  the  opposite 
direction.  And  I  am  sure  that  the  ultimate, 
greatest  desire  in  men  is  this  desire  for  great  pur- 
posive activity.  When  man  loses  his  deep  sense 
of  purposive,  creative  activity,  he  feels  lost,  and 


152       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

is  lost  When  he  makes  the  sexual  consumma- 
tion the  supreme  consummation,  even  in  his  se- 
cret  soul,  he  falls  into  the  beginnings  of  despair. 
When  he  makes  woman,  or  the  woman  and  child 
the  great  center  of  life  and  of  life-significance, 
he  falls  into  the  beginnings  of  despair. 

Man  must  bravely  stand  by  his  own  soul,  his 
own  responsibility  as  the  creative  vanguard  of 
life.  And  he  must  also  have  the  courage  to  go 
home  to  his  woman  and  become  a  perfect  answer 
to  her  deep  sexual  call.  But  he  must  never  con- 
fuse his  two  issues.  Primarily  and  supremely 
man  is  always  the  pioneer  of  life,  adventuring 
onward  into  the  unknown,  alone  with  his  own 
temerarious,  dauntless  soul.  Woman  for  him  ex- 
ists only  in  the  twilight,  by  the  camp  fire,  when 
day  has  departed.  Evening  and  the  night  are 
hers. 

The  psychonanalysts,  driving  us  back  to  the 
sexual  consummation  always,  do  us  infinite 
damage. 

We  have  to  break  away,  back  to  the  great 
unison  of  manhood  in  some  passionate  purpose. 
Now  this  is  not  like  sex.  Sex  is  always  individ- 
ual. A  man  has  his  own  sex :  nobody  else's.  And 
sexually  he  goes  as  a  single  individual;  he  can 
mingle  only  singly.     So   that  to  make  sex   a 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  153 

general  affair  is  just  a  perversion  and  a  lie.  You 
can't  get  people  and  talk  to  them  about  their 
sex,  as  if  it  were  a  common  interest. 

We  have  got  to  get  back  to  the  great  purpose 
of  manhood,  a  passionate  unison  in  actively  mak- 
ing a  world.  This  is  a  real  commingling  of 
many.  And  in  such  a  commingling  we  forfeit 
the  individual.  In  the  commingling  of  sex  we 
are  alone  with  one  partner.  It  is  an  individual 
affair,  there  is  no  superior  or  inferior.  But  in 
the  commingling  of  a  passionate  purpose,  each 
individual  sacredly  abandons  his  individual.  In 
the  living  faith  of  his  soul,  he  surrenders  his 
individuality  to  the  great  urge  which  is  upon 
him.  He  may  have  to  surrender  his  name,  his 
fame,  his  fortune,  his  life,  everything.  But 
once  a  man,  in  the  integrity  of  his  own  individ- 
ual soul,  believes,  he  surrenders  his  own  individ- 
uality to  his  belief,  and  becomes  one  of  a  united 
body.  He  knows  what  he  does.  He  makes  the 
surrender  honorably,  in  agreement  with  his  own 
soul's  deepest  desire.  But  he  surrenders,  and 
remains  responsible  for  the  purity  of  his  sur- 
render. 

But  what  if  he  believes  that  his  sexual  consum- 
mation is  his  supreme  consummation?  Then  he 
serves  the  great  purpose  to  which  he  pledges 


154       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

himself  only  as  long  as  it  pleases  him.  After 
which  he  turns  it  down,  and  goes  back  to  sex. 
With  sex  as  the  one  accepted  prime  motive,  the 
world  drifts  into  despair  and  anarchy. 

Of  all  countries,  America  has  most  to  fear 
from  anarchy,  even  from  one  single  moment's 
lapse  into  anarchy.  The  old  nations  are  organ- 
ically fixed  into  classes,  but  America  not.  You 
can  shake  Europe  to  atoms.  And  yet  peasants 
fall  back  to  peasantry,  artisans  to  industrial  la- 
bor, upper  classes  to  their  control — inevitably. 
But  can  you  say  the  same  of  America? 

America  must  not  lapse  for  one  single  mo- 
ment into  anarchy.  It  would  be  the  end  of  her. 
She  must  drift  no  nearer  to  anarchy.  She  is 
near  enough. 

Well,  then,  Americans  must  make  a  choice. 
It  is  a  choice  between  belief  in  man's  creative, 
spontaneous  soul,  and  man's  automatic  power  of 
production  and  reproduction.  It  is  a  choice  be- 
tween serving  man,  or  woman.  It  is  a  choice 
between  yielding  the  soul  to  a  leader,  leaders,  or 
yielding  only  to  the  woman,  wife,  mistress,  or 
mother. 

The  great  collective  passion  of  belief  which 
brings  men  together,  comrades  and  co-workers, 
passionately  obeying  their  soul-chosen  leader  or 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  155 

leaders,  this  is  not  a  sex  passion.  Not  in  any 
sense.  Sex  holds  any  two  people  together,  but 
it  tends  to  disintegrate  society,  unless  it  is  sub- 
ordinated to  the  great  dominating  male  passion 
of  collective  purpose. 

But  when  the  sex  passion  submits  to  the  great 
purposive  passion,  then  you  have  fulness.  And 
no  great  purposive  passion  can  endure  long  un- 
less it  is  established  upon  the  fulfillment  in  the 
vast  majority  of  individuals  of  the  true  sexual 
passion.  No  great  motive  or  ideal  or  social  prin- 
ciple can  endure  for  any  length  of  time  unless 
based  upon  the  sexual  fulfillment  of  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  individuals  concerned. 

It  cuts  both  ways.  Assert  sex  as  the  pre- 
dominant fulfillment,  and  you  get  the  collapse 
of  living  purpose  in  man.  You  get  anarchy. 
Assert  purposiveness  as  the  one  supreme  and 
pure  activity  of  life,  and  you  drift  into  barren 
sterility,  like  our  business  life  of  to-day,  and 
our  political  life.  You  become  sterile,  you  make 
anarchy  inevitable.  And  so  there  you  are.  You 
have  got  to  base  your  great  purposive  activity 
upon  the  intense  sexual  fulfillment  of  all  your 
individuals.  That  was  how  Egypt  endured.  But 
you  have  got  to  keep  your  sexual  fulfillment  even 
then  subordinate,  just  subordinate  to  the  great 


156       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

passion  of  purpose:  subordinate  by  a  hair's 
breadth  only:  but  still,  by  that  hair's  breadth, 
subordinate. 

Perhaps  we  can  see  now  a  little  better — to  go 
back  to  the  child — ^where  Freud  is  wrong  in  at- 
tributing a  sexual  motive  to  all  human  activity. 
It  is  obvious  there  is  no  real  sexual  motive  in  a 
child,  for  example.  The  great  sexual  centers  are 
not  even  awake.  True,  even  in  a  child  of  three, 
rudimentary  sex  throws  strange  shadows  on  the 
wall,  in  its  approach  from  the  distance.  But 
these  are  only  an  uneasy  intrusion  from  the  as- 
yet-uncreated,  unready  biological  centers.  The 
great  sexual  centers  of  the  hypogastric  plexus, 
and  the  immensely  powerful  sacral  ganglion  are 
slowly  prepared,  developed  in  a  kind  of  pre- 
natal gestation  during  childhood  before  puberty. 
But  even  an  unborn  child  kicks  in  the  womb.  So 
do  the  great  sex-centers  give  occasional  blind 
kicks  in  a  child.  It  is  part  of  the  phenomenon 
of  childhood.  But  we  must  be  most  careful  not 
to  charge  these  rather  unpleasant  apparitions  or 
phenomena  against  the  individual  boy  or  girl. 
We  must  be  very  careful  not  to  drag  the  matter 
into  mental  consciousness.  Shoo  it  away.  Rep- 
rimand it  with  a  pah!  and  a  faugh!  and  a  bit  of 
contempt.    But  do  not  get  into  any  heat  or  any 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  157 

fear.  Do  not  startle  a  passional  attention. 
Drive  the  whole  thing  away  like  the  shadow  it  is, 
and  be  very  careful  not  to  drive  it  into  the  con- 
sciousness. Be  very  careful  to  plant  no  seed  of 
burning  shame  or  horror.  Throw  over  it  merely 
the  cold  water  of  contemptuous  indifference,  dis- 
missal. 

After  puberty,  a  child  may  as  well  be  told  the 
simple  and  necessary  facts  of  sex.  As  things 
stand,  the  parent  may  as  well  do  it.  But  briefly, 
coldly,  and  with  as  cold  a  dimissal  as  possible.-- 
^'Look  here,  youVe  not  a  child  any  more;  you 
know  it,  don't  you?  You're  going  to  be  a  man. 
And  you  know  what  that  means.  It  means  you're 
going  to  marry  a  woman  later  on,  and  get 
children.  You  know  it,  and  I  know  it.  But 
in  the  meantime,  leave  yourself  alone.  I  know 
you'll  have  a  lot  of  bother  with  yourself,  and 
your  feelings.  I  know  what  is  happening  to 
you.  And  I  know  you  get  excited  about  it. 
But  you  needn't.  Other  men  have  all  gone 
through  it.  So  don't  you  go  creeping  off  by 
yourself  and  doing  things  on  the  sly.  It  won't 
do  you  any  good. — I  know  what  you'll  do,  be- 
cause we've  all  been  through  it.  I  know  the 
thing  will  keep  coming  on  you  at  night.  But 
remember  that  I  know.     Remember.    And  re- 


158       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

member  that  I  want  you  to  leave  yourself  alone. 
I  know  what  it  is,  I  tell  you.  IVe  been  through 
it  all  myself.  YouVe  got  to  go  through  these 
years,  before  you  find  a  woman  you  want  to 
marry,  and  whom  you  can  marry.  I  went 
through  them  myself,  and  got  myself  worked 
up  a  good  deal  more  than  was  good  for  me. — 
Try  to  contain  yourself.  Always  try  to  contain 
yourself,  and  be  a  man.  That's  the  only  thing. 
Always  try  and  be  manly,  and  quiet  in  yourself. 
Remember  I  know  what  it  is.  IVe  been  the 
same,  in  the  same  state  that  you  are  in.  And 
probably  IVe  behaved  more  foolishly  and  per- 
niciously than  ever  you  will.  So  come  to  me  if 
anything  really  bothers  you.  And  don't  feel  sly 
and  secret.  I  do  know  just  what  youVe  got  and 
what  you  haven't.  IVe  been  as  bad  and  per- 
haps worse  than  you.  And  the  only  thing  I 
want  of  you  is  to  be  manly.  Try  and  be  manly, 
and  quiet  in  yourself." 

That  is  about  as  much  as  a  father  can  say  to 
a  boy,  at  puberty.  You  have  to  be  very  careful 
what  you  do :  especially  if  you  are  a  parent.  To 
translate  sex  into  mental  ideas  is  vile,  to  make  a 
scientific  fact  of  it  is  death. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  should  be  some  sort 
of  initiation  into  true  adult  consciousness.    Boys 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  159 

should  be  taken  away  from  their  mothers  and 
sisters  as  much  as  possible  at  adolescence.  They 
should  be  given  into  some  real  manly  charge. 
And  there  should  be  some  actual  initiation  into 
sex  life.  Perhaps  like  the  savages,  vs^ho  make 
the  boy  die  again,  symbolically,  and  pull  him 
forth  through  some  narrow  aperture,  to  be  born 
again,  and  make  him  suffer  and  endure  terrible 
hardships,  to  make  a  great  dynamic  effect  on  the 
consciousness,  a  terrible  dynamic  sense  of  change 
in  the  very  being.  In  short,  a  long,  violent  in- 
itiation, from  which  the  lad  emerges  emaciated, 
but  cut  off  forever  from  childhood,  entered  into 
the  serious,  responsible  pale  of  manhood.  And 
with  his  whole  consciousness  convulsed  by  a 
great  change,  as  his  dynamic  psyche  actually  is 
convulsed. — And  something  in  the  same  way, 
to  initiate  girls  into  womanhood. 

There  should  be  the  intense  dynamic  reac- 
tion: the  physical  suffering  and  the  physical 
realization  sinking  deep  into  the  soul,  changing 
the  soul  for  ever.  Sex  should  come  upon  us  as 
a  terrible  thing  of  suffering  and  privilege  and 
mystery:  a  mysterious  metamorphosis  come  upon 
us,  and  a  new  terrible  power  given  us,  and  a 
new  responsibility.  Telling? — ^What's  the  good 
of    telling? — The    mystery,     the    terror,     and 


i6o       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

the  tremendous  power  of  sex  should  never  be 
explained  away.  The  mass  of  mankind  should 
never  be  acquainted  with  the  scientific  biologi- 
cal facts  of  sex:  never.  The  mystery  must  re- 
main in  its  dark  secrecy,  and  its  dark,  powerful 
dynamism.  The  reality  of  sex  lies  in  the  great 
dynamic  convulsions  in  the  soul.  And  as  such 
it  should  be  realized,  a  great  creative-convulsive 
seizure  upon  the  soul. — To  make  it  a  matter  of 
test-tube  mixtures,  chemical  demonstrations  and 
trashy  lock-and-key  symbols  is  just  blasting. 
Even  more  sickening  is  the  line :  '^You  see,  dear, 
one  day  you'll  love  a  man  as  I  love  Daddy,  more 
than  anything  else  in  the  whole  world.  And 
then,  dear,  I  hope  you'll  marry  him.  Because 
if  you  do  you'll  be  happy,  and  I  want  you  to  be 
happy,  my  love.  And  so  I  hope  you'll  marry 
the  man  you  really  love  (kisses  the  child). 
— And  then,  darling,  there  will  come  a  lot  of 
things  you  know  nothing  about  now.  You'll  want 
to  have  a  dear  little  baby,  won't  you,  darling? 
Your  own  dear  little  baby.  And  your  husband's 
as  well.  Because  it'll  be  his,  too.  You  know 
that,  don't  you,  dear?'  It  will  be  born  from  both 
of  you.  And  you  don't  know  how,  do  you?  Well, 
it  will  come  from  right  inside  you,  dear,  out  of 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  i6i 

your  own  inside.  You  came  out  of  mother's  in- 
side, etc.,  etc." 

But  I  suppose  there's  really  nothing  else  to  be 
done,  given  the  world  and  society  as  we've  got 
them  now.    The  mother  is  doing  her  best. 

But  it  is  all  wrong.  It  is  wrong  to  make  sex 
appear  as  if  it  were  part  of  the  dear-darling- 
love  smarm :  the  spiritual  love.  It  is  even  worse 
to  take  the  scientific  test-tube  line.  It  all  kills 
the  great  effective  dynamism  of  life,  and  substi- 
tutes the  mere  ash  of  mental  ideas  and  tricks. 

The  scientific  fact  of  sex  is  no  more  sex  than 
a  skeleton  is  a  man.  Yet  you'd  think  twice  be- 
fore you  stock  a  skeleton  in  front  of  a  lad  and 
said,  "You  see,  my  boy,  this  is  what  you  are  when 
you  come  to  know  yourself." — And  the  ideal, 
lovey-dovey  "explanation"  of  sex  as  something 
wonderful  and  extra  lovey-dovey,  a  bill-and-coo 
process  of  obtaining  a  sweet  little  baby — or  else 
"God  made  us  so  that  we  must  do  this,  to  bring 
another  dear  little  baby  to  life" — well,  it  just 
makes  one  sick.  It  is  disastrous  to  the  deep 
sexual  life.    But  perhaps  that  is  what  we  want. 

When  humanity  comes  to  its  senses  it  will 
realize  what  a  fearful  Sodom  apple  our  under- 
standing is.  What  terrible  mouths  and  stomachs 
full  of  bitter  ash  we've  all  got.     And  then  we 


i62       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

shall  take  away  ^^knowledge"  and  "understand- 
ing," and  lock  them  up  along  with  the  rest  of 
poisons,  to  be  administered  in  small  doses  only 
by  competent  people. 

We  have  almost  poisoned  the  mass  of 
humanity  to  death  with  understanding.  The 
period  of  actual  death  and  race-extermination  is 
not  far  off.  We  could  have  produced  the  same 
barrenness  and  frenzy  of  nothingness  in  people^ 
perhaps,  by  dinning  it  into  them  that  every  man 
is  just  a  charnel-house  skeleton  of  unclean  bones. 
Our  "understanding,"  our  science  and  idealism 
have  produced  in  people  the  same  strange 
frenzy  of  self-repulsion  as  if  they  saw  their  own 
skulls  each  time  they  looked  in  the  mirror.  A 
man  is  a  thing  of  scientific  cause-and-efifect  and 
biological  process,  draped  in  an  ideal,  is  he? 
No  wonder  he  sees  the  skeleton  grinning  through 
the  flesh. 

Our  leaders  have  not  loved  men:  they  have 
loved  ideas,  and  have  been  willing  to  sacrifice 
passionate  men  on  the  altars  of  the  blood-drink- 
ing, ever-ash-thirsty  ideal.  Has  President  Wil- 
son, or  Karl  Marx,  or  Bernard  Shaw  ever  felt 
one  hot  blood-pulse  of  love  for  the  working 
man,  the  half-conscious,  deluded  working  man? 
Never.     Each  of  these  leaders  has  wanted  to 


THE  BIRTH  OF  SEX  163 

abstract  him  away  from  his  own  blood  and  be- 
ing, into  some  foul  Methuselah  or  abstraction  of 
a  man. 

And  me?  There  is  no  danger  of  the  working 
man  ever  reading  my  books,  so  I  shan't  hurt  him 
that  way.  But  oh,  I  would  like  to  save  him 
alive,  in  his  living,  spontaneous,  original  being. 
I  can't  help  it.    It  is  my  passionate  instinct. 

I  would  like  him  to  give  me  back  the  respon- 
sibility for  general  afifairs,  a  responsibility  which 
he  can't  acquit,  and  which  saps  his  life.  I  would 
like  him  to  give  me  back  the  responsibility  for 
the  future.  I  would  like  him  to  give  me  back 
the  responsibility  for  thought,  for  direction.  I 
wish  we  could  take  hope  and  belief  together.  I 
would  undertake  my  share  of  the  responsibility, 
if  he  gave  me  his  belief. 

I  would  like  him  to  give  me  back  books  and 
newspapers  and  theories.  And  I  would  like  to 
give  him  back,  in  return,  his  old  insouciance, 
and  rich,  original  spontaneity  and  fullness  of 
life. 


CHAPTER  X 

PARENT   LOVE 

IN  the  serious  hour  of  puberty,  the  individual 
passes  into  his  second  phase  of  accomplish- 
ment. But  there  cannot  be  a  perfect  transition 
unless  all  the  activity  is  in  full  play  in  all  the 
first  four  poles  of  the  psyche.  Childhood  is  a 
chrysalis  from  v^hich  each  must  extricate  him- 
self. And  the  struggling  youth  or  maid  cannot 
emerge  unless  by  the  energy  of  all  powers;  he 
can  never  emerge  if  the  whole  mass  of  the  world 
and  the  tradition  of  love  hold  him  back. 

Now  we  come  to  the  greater  peril  of  our  par- 
ticular form  of  idealism.  It  is  the  idealism  of 
love  and  of  the  spirit:  the  idealism  of  yearning, 
outgoing  love,  of  pure  sympathetic  communion 
and  "understanding."  And  this  idealism  recog- 
nizes as  the  highest  earthly  love,  the  love  of 
mother  and  child. 

And  what  does  this  mean?  It  means,  for  every 

delicately  brought  up  child,  indeed  for  all  the 

children  who  matter,   a  steady  and  persistent 

164 


PARENT  LOVE  165 

pressure  upon  the  upper  sympathetic  centers, 
and  a  steady  and  persistent  starving  of  the  lower 
centers,  particularly  the  great  voluntary  center 
of  the  lower  body.  The  center  of  sensual,  manly 
independence,  of  exultation  in  the  sturdy,  defiant 
self,  willfulness  and  masterfulness  and  pride, 
this  center  is  steadily  suppressed.  The  warm, 
swift,  sensual  self  is  steadily  and  persistently 
denied,  damped,  weakened,  throughout  all  the 
period  of  childhood.  And  by  sensual  we  do  not 
mean  greedy  or  ugly,  we  mean  the  deeper,  more 
impulsive  reckless  nature.  Life  must  be  always 
refined  and  superior.  Love  and  happiness  must 
be  the  watchword.  The  willful,  critical  element 
of  the  spiritual  mode  is  never  absent,  the  silent, 
if  forbearing  disapproval  and  distaste  is  always 
ready.    Vile  bullying  forbearance. 

With  what  result?  The  center  of  upper  sym- 
pathy is  abnormally,  inflamedly  excited;  and 
the  centers  of  will  are  so  deranged  that  they 
operate  in  jerks  and  spasms.  The  true  polarity 
of  the  sympathetic-voluntary  system  within  the 
child  is  so  disturbed  as  to  be  almost  deranged. 
Then  we  have  an  exaggerated  sensitiveness  alter- 
nating with  a  sort  of  helpless  fury:  and  we  have 
delicate  frail  children  with  nerves  or  with 
strange  whims.    And  we  have  the  strange  cold 


i66       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

obstinacy  of  the  spiritual  will,  cold  as  hell,  fixed 
in  a  child. 

Then  one  parent,  usually  the  mother,  is  the 
object  of  blind  devotion,  whilst  the  other  par- 
ent, usually  the  father,  is  an  object  of  resistance. 
The  child  is  taught,  however,  that  both  parents 
should  be  loved,  and  only  loved :  and  that  love, 
gentleness,  pity,  charity,  and  all  "higher"  emo- 
tions, these  alone  are  genuine  feelings,  all  the 
rest  are  false,  to  be  rejected. 

With  what  result?  The  upper  centers  are 
developed  to  a  degree  of  unnatural  acuteness 
and  reaction — or  again  they  fall  numbed  and 
barren.  And  then  between  parents  and  children 
a  painfully  false  relation  grows  up:  a  relation 
as  of  two  adults,  either  of  two  pure  lovers,  or 
of  two  love-appearing  people  who  are  really  try- 
ing to  bully  one  another.  Instead  of  leaving  the 
child  with  its  own  limited  but  deep  and  incom- 
prehensible feelings,  the  parent,  hopelessly  in- 
volved in  the  sympathetic  mode  of  selfless  love, 
and  spiritual  love-will,  stimulates  the  child  into 
a  consciousness  which  does  not  belong  to  it,  on 
the  one  plane,  and  robs  it  of  its  own  spontaneous 
consciousness  and  freedom  on  the  other  plane. 

And  this  is  the  fatality.  Long  before  puberty, 
by  an  exaggeration  and  an  intensity  of  spiritual 


PARENT  LOVE  167 

love  from  the  parents,  the  second  centers  of 
sympathy  are  artificially  aroused  into  response. 
And  there  is  an  irreparable  disaster.  Instead  of 
seeing  as  a  child  should  see,  through  a  glass, 
darkly,  the  child  now  opens  premature  eyes  of 
sympathetic  cognition.  Instead  of  knowing  in 
part,  as  it  should  know,  it  begins,  at  a  fearfully 
small  age,  to  know  in  full.  The  cervical  plexuses 
and  the  cervical  ganglia,  which  should  only  be- 
gin to  awake  after  adolescence,  these  centers  of 
the  higher  dynamic  sympathy  and  cognition,  are 
both  artificially  stimulated,  by  the  adult  per- 
sonal love-emotion  and  love-will  into  response, 
in  a  quite  young  child,  sometimes  even  in  an 
infant.    This  is  a  holy  obscenity. 

Our  particular  mode  of  idealism  causes  us  to 
suppress  as  far  as  possible  the  sensual  centers,  to 
make  them  negative.  The  whole  of  the  activity 
is  concentrated,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  upper 
or  spiritual  centers,  the  centers  of  the  breast  and 
throat,  which  we  will  call  the  centers  of  dynamic 
cognition,  in  contrast  to  the  centers  of  sensual 
comprehension  below  the  diaphragm. 

And  then  a  child  arrives  at  puberty,  with  its 
upper  nature  already  roused  into  precocious 
action.  The  child  nowadays  is  almost  invariably 
precocious  in  "understanding."     In  the  north, 


i68       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

spiritually  precocious,  so  that  by  the  time  it  ar- 
rives at  adolescence  it  already  has  experienced 
the  extended  sympathetic  reactions  which  should 
have  lain  utterly  dark.  And  it  has  experienced 
these  extended  reactions  with  whom?  With  the 
parent  or  parents. 

Which  is  man  devouring  his  own  offspring. 
For  to  the  parents  belongs,  once  and  for  all,  the 
dynamic  reaction  on  the  first  plane  of  conscious- 
ness only,  the  reaction  and  relationship  at  the  first 
four  poles  of  dynamic  consciousness.  When  the 
second,  the  farther  plane  of  consciousness  rouses 
into  action,  the  relationship  is  with  strangers. 
All  human  instinct  and  all  ethnology  will  prove 
this  to  us.  What  sex-instinct  there  is  in  a  child 
is  always  adverse  to  the  parents. 

But  also,  the  parents  are  all  too  quick.  They 
all  proceed  to  swallow  their  children  before  the 
children  can  get  out  of  their  clutches.  And  even 
if  parents  do  send  away  their  children  at  the 
age  of  puberty — to  school  or  elsewhere — it  is 
not  much  good.  The  mischief  has  been  done  be- 
fore. For  the  first  twelve  years  the  parents  and 
the  whole  community  forcibly  insist  on  the 
child's  living  from  the  upper  centers  only,  and 
particularly  the  upper  sympathetic  centers, 
without  the  balance  of  the  warm,  deep  sensual 


PARENT  LOVE  169 

self.  Parents  and  community  alike  insist  on 
rousing  an  adult  sympathetic  response,  and  a 
mental  answer  in  the  child-schools,  Sunday- 
schools,  books,  home-influence — all  works  in 
this  one  pernicious  way.  But  it  is  the  home, 
the  parents,  that  work  most  effectively  and  in- 
tensely. There  is  the  most  intimate  mesh  of  love, 
love-bullying,  and  "understanding"  in  which  a 
child  is  entangled. 

So  that  a  child  arrives  at  the  age  of  puberty 
already  stripped  of  its  childhood's  darkness, 
bound,  and  delivered  over.  Instead  of  waking 
now  to  a  whole  new  field  of  consciousness,  a 
whole  vast  and  wonderful  new  dynamic  impulse 
towards  new  connections,  it  finds  itself  fatally 
bound.  Puberty  accomplishes  itself.  The  hour 
of  sex  strikes.  But  there  is  your  child,  bound, 
h^elpless.  You  have  already  aroused  in  it  the 
dynamic  response  to  your  own  insatiable  love- 
will.  You  have  already  established  between 
your  child  and  yourself  the  dynamic  relation  in 
the  further  plane  of  consciousness.  You  have 
got  your  dhild  as  sure  as  if  you  had  woven  its 
flesh  again  with  your  oWn.  You  have  done  what 
it  is  vicious  for  any  parent  to  do :  you  have  estab- 
lished between  your  child  and  yourself  the  bond 
of  adult  love :  the  love  of  man  for  man,  woman 


JL76      FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

for  woman,  or  man  for  woman.  All  your  ten- 
derness, your  cherishing  will  not  excuse  you.  It 
only  deepens  your  guilt.  You  have  established 
between  your  child  and  yourself  the  bond  of  fur- 
ther sympathy.  I  do  not  speak  of  sex.  I  speak 
of  pure  sympathy,  sacred  love.  The  parents 
establish  between  themselves  and  their  child  the 
bond  of  the  higher  love,  the  further  spiritual 
love,  the  sympathy  of  the  adult  soul. 

And  this  is  fatal.  It  is  a  sort  of  incest.  It  is 
a  dynamic  spiritual  incest,  more  dangerous  than 
sensual  incest,  because  it  is  more  intangible  and 
less  instinctively  repugnant.  But  let  psycho- 
analysis fall  into  what  discredit  it  may,  it  has 
done  us  this  great  service  of  proving  to  us  that 
the  intense  upper  sympathy,  indeed  the  dynamic 
relation  either  of  love-will  or  love-sympathy, 
between  parent  and  child,  upon  the  upper  plane^ 
inevitably  involves  us  in  a  conclusion  of  incest. 

For  although  it  is  our  aim  to  establish  a  purely 
spiritual  dynamic  relation  on  the  upper  plane 
only,  yet,  because  of  the  inevitable  polarity  of 
the  human  psychic  system,  we  shall  arouse  at  the 
same  time  a  dynamic  sensual  activity  on  the 
lower  plane,  the  deeper  sensual  plane.  We  may 
be  as  pure  as  angels,  and  yet,  being  human,  this 
will  and  must  inevitably  happen.    When  Mrs. 


PARENT  LOVE  171 

Ruskin  said  that  John  Ruskin  should  have  mar- 
ried his  mother  she  spoke  the  truth.  He  was 
married  to  his  mother.  For  in  spite  of  all  our 
intention,  all  our  creed,  all  our  purity,  all  our 
desire  and  all  our  will,  once  we  arouse  the 
dynamic  relation  in  the  upper,  higher  plane  of 
love,  we  inevitably  evoke  a  dynamic  conscious- 
ness on  the  lower,  deeper  plane  of  sensual  love. 
And  then  what? 

Of  course,  parents  can  reply  that  their  love, 
however  intense,  is  pure,  and  has  absolutely  no 
sensual  element.  Maybe — and  maybe  not.  But 
admit  that  it  is  so.  It  does  not  help.  The  in- 
tense excitement  of  the  upper  centers  of  sym- 
pathy willy-nilly  arouses  the  lower  centers.  It 
arouses  them  to  activity,  even  if  it  denies  them 
any  expression  or  any  polarized  connection. 
Our  psyche  is  so  framed  that  activity  aroused  on 
one  plane  provokes  activity  on  the  correspond- 
ing plane,  automatically.  So  the  intense  pure 
love-relation  between  parent  and  child  inevit- 
ably arouses  the  lower  centers  in  the  child,  the 
centers  of  sex.  Now  the  deeper  sensual  centers, 
once  aroused,  should  find  response  from  the  sen- 
sual body  of  some  other,  some  friend  or  lover. 
The  response  is  impossible  between  parent  and 
child.    Myself,  I  believe  that  biologically  there 


172       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

is  radical  sex-aversion -between  parent  and  child, 
at  the  deeper  sensual  centers.  The  sensual  cir- 
cuit cannot  adjust  itself  spontaneously  between 
the  two. 

So  what  have  you?  Child  and  parent  in- 
tensely linked  in  adult  love-sympathy  and  love- 
will,  on  the  upper  plane,  and  in  the  child,  the 
deeper  sensual  centers  aroused,  but  finding  no 
correspondent,  no  objective,  no  polarized  con- 
nection with  another  person.  There  they  are, 
the  powerful  centers  of  sex,  acting  spasmodi- 
cally, without  balance.  They  must  be  polarized 
somehow.  So  they  are  polarized  to  the  active 
upper  centers  within  the  child,  and  you  get  an 
introvert. 

This  is  how  introversion  begins.  The  lower 
sexual  centers  are  aroused.  They  find  no  sym- 
pathy, no  connection,  no  response  from  outside, 
no  expression.  They  are  dynamically  polarized 
by  the  upper  centers  within  the  individual. 
That  is,  the  whole  of  the  sexual  or  deeper  sen- 
sual flow  goes  on  upwards  in  the  individual,  to 
his  own  upper,  from  his  own  lower  centers.  The 
upper  centers  hold  the  lower  in  positive  polarity. 
The  flow  goes  on  upwards.  There  must  be  some 
reaction.  And  so  you  get,  first  and  foremost,  self- 
consciousness,   an  intense  consciousness  in  the 


PARENT  LOVE  173 

upper  self  of  the  lower  self.  This  is  the  first 
disaster.  Then  you  get  the  upper  body  exploit- 
ing the  lower  body.  You  get  the  hands  exploit- 
ing the  sensual  body,  in  feeling,  fingering,  and 
in  masturbation.  You  get  a  pornographic  long- 
ing with  regard  to  the  self.  You  get  the 
obscene  post  cards  which  most  youths  possess. 
You  get  the  absolute  lust  for  dirty  stories,  which 
so  many  men  have.  And  you  get  various  mild 
sex  perversions,  such  as  masturbation,  and  so  on. 

What  does  all  this  mean?  It  means  that  the 
activity  of  the  lower  psyche  and  lower  body  is 
polarized  by  the  upper  body.  Eyes  and  ears 
want  to  gather  sexual  activity  and  knowl- 
edge. The  mind  becomes  full  of  sex:  and 
always,  in  an  introvert,  of  his  own  sex.  If  we 
examine  the  apparent  extroverts,  like  the  flaunt- 
ing Italian,  we  shall  see  the  same  thing.  It  is 
his  own  sex  which  obsesses  him. 

And  to-day  what  have  we  but  this?  Almost 
inevitably  we  find  in  a  child  now  an  intense, 
precocious,  secret  sexual  preoccupation.  The 
upper  self  is  rabidly  engaged  in  exploiting  the 
lower  self.  A  child  and  its  own  roused,  inflamed 
sex,  its  own  shame  and  masturbation,  its  own 
cruel,  secret  sexual  excitement  and  sex  curiosity, 
this  is  the  greatest  tragedy  of  our  day.    The  child 


174       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

does  not  so  much  want  to  act  as  to  know.  The 
thought  of  actual  sex  connection  is  usually  re- 
pulsive. There  is  an  aversion  from  the  normal 
coition  act.  But  the  craving  to  feel,  to  see,  to 
taste,  to  know,  mentally  in  the  head,  this  is  in- 
satiable. Anything,  so  that  the  sensation  and 
experience  shall  come  through  the  upper  chan- 
nels. This  is  the  secret  of  our  introversion  and 
our  perversion  to-day.  Anything  rather  than 
spontaneous  direct  action  from  the  sensual  self. 
Anything  rather  than  the  merely  normal  passion. 
Introduce  any  trick,  any  idea,  any  mental  ele- 
ment you  can  into  sex,  but  make  it  an  affair  of 
the  upper  consciousness,  the  mind  and  eyes  and 
mouth  and  fingers.  This  is  our  vice,  our  dirt, 
our  disease. 

And  the  adult,  and  the  ideal  are  to  blame. 
But  the  tragedy  of  our  children,  in  their  in- 
flamed, solitary  sexual  excitement,  distresses  us 
beyond  any  blame. 

It  is  time  to  drop  the  word  love,  and  more  than 
time  to  drop  the  ideal  of  love.  Every  frenzied 
individual  is  told  to  find  fulfillment  in  love.  So 
he  tries.  Whereas,  there  is  no  fulfillment  in 
love.  Half  of  our  fulfillment  comes  through 
love,  through  strong,  sensual  love.  But  the  cen- 
tral fulfillment,  for  a  man,  is  that  he  possess  his 


PARENT  LOVE  175 

own  soul  in  strength  within  him,  deep  and  alone. 
The  deep,  rich  aloneness,  reached  and  perfected 
through  love.  And  the  passing  beyond  any  fur- 
ther quest  of  love. 

This  central  fullness  of  self-possession  is  our 
goal,  if  goal  there  be  any.  But  there  are  two 
great  ways  of  fulfillment.  The  first,  the  way  of 
fulfillment  through  complete  love,  complete, 
passionate,  deep  love.  And  the  second,  the 
greater,  the  fulfillment  through  the  accomplish- 
ment of  religious  purpose,  the  soul's  earnest 
purpose.  We  work  the  love  way  falsely,  from 
the  upper  self,  and  work  it  to  death.  The  sec- 
ond way,  of  active  unison  in  strong  purpose,  and 
in  faith,  this  we  only  sneer  at. 

But  to  return  to  the  child  and  the  parent.  The 
coming  to  the  fulfillment  of  single  aloneness, 
through  love,  is  made  impossible  for  us  by  the 
ideal,  the  monomania  of  more  love.  At  the  very 
age  dangereuse,  when  a  woman  should  be  accom- 
plishing her  own  fulfillment  into  maturity  and 
rich  quiescence,  she  turns  rabidly  to  seek  a  new 
lover.  At  the  very  crucial  time  when  she  should 
be  coming  to  a  state  of  pure  equilibrium  and 
rest  with  her  husband,  she  turns  rabidly  against 
rest  or  peace  or  equilibrium  or  husband  in  any 
shape  or  form,  and  demands  more  love,  more 


176       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

love,  a  new  sort  of  lover,  one  who  will  "under- 
stand" her.  And  as  often  as  not  she  turns  to 
her  son. 

It  is  true,  a  woman  reaches  her  goal  of  fulfill- 
ment through  feeling.  But  through  being  "un- 
derstood" she  reaches  nowhere,  unless  the  lover 
understands  what  a  vice  it  is  for  a  woman  to  get 
herself  and  her  sex  into  her  head.  A  woman 
reaches  her  fulfillment  through  love,  deep  sen- 
sual love,  and  exquisite  sensitive  communion. 
But  once  she  reaches  the  point  of  fulfillment, 
she  should  not  break  off  to  ask  for  more  excite- 
ments. She  should  take  the  beauty  of  maturity 
and  peace  and  quiet  faithfulness  upon  her. 

This  she  won't  do,  however,  unless  the  man, 
her  husband,  goes  on  beyond  her.  When  a  man 
approaches  the  beginning  of  maturity  and  the 
fulfillment  of  his  individual  self,  about  the  age 
of  thirty-five,  then  is  not  his  time  to  come  to 
rest.  On  the  contrary.  Deeply  fulfilled  through 
marriage,  and  at  one  with  his  own  soul,  he  must 
now  undertake  the  responsibility  for  the  next 
step  into  the  future.  He  must  now  give  himself 
perfectly  to  some  further  purpose,  some  pas- 
sionate purposive  activity.  Till  a  man  makes 
the  great  resolution  of  aloneness  and  singleness 
of  being,  till  he  takes  upon  himself  the  silence 


PARENT  LOVE  177 

and  central  appeasedness  of  maturity;  and  then, 
after  this,  assumes  a  sacred  responsibility  for  the 
next  purposive  step  into  the  future,  there  is  no 
rest.  The  great  resolution  of  aloneness  and 
appeasedness,  and  the  further  deep  assumption 
of  responsibility  in  purpose — this  is  necessary  to 
every  parent,  every  father,  every  husband,  at  a 
certain  point.  If  the  resolution  is  never  made, 
the  responsibility  never  embraced,  then  the  love- 
craving  will  run  on  into  frenzy,  and  lay  waste 
to  the  family.  In  the  woman  particularly  the 
love-craving  will  run  on  to  frenzy  and  disaster. 
Seeking,  seeking  the  fulfillment  in  the  deep 
passional  self;  diseased  with  self-consciousness 
and  sex  in  the  head,  foiled  by  the  very  loving 
weakness  of  the  husband  who  has  not  the  courage 
to  withdraw  into  his  own  stillness  and  single- 
ness, and  put  the  wife  under  the  spell  of  his  ful- 
filled decision;  the  unhappy  woman  beats  about 
for  her  insatiable  satisfaction,  seeking  whom  she 
may  devour.  And  usually,  she  turns  to  her 
child.  Here  she  provokes  what  she  wants. 
Here,  in  her  own  son  who  belongs  to  her,  she 
seems  to  find  the  last  perfect  response  for  which 
she  is  craving.  He  is  a  medium  to  her,  she  pro- 
vokes from  him  her  own  answer.  So  she  throws 
herself  into  a  last  great  love  for  her  son,  a  final 


178       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

and  fatal  devotion,  that  which  would  have  been 
the  richness  and  strength  of  her  husband  and  is 
poison  to  her  boy.  The  husband,  irresolute, 
never  accepting  his  own  higher  responsibility, 
bows  and  accepts.  And  the  fatal  round  of  intro- 
version and  ^^complex"  starts  once  more.  If  man 
will  never  accept  his  own  ultimate  being,  his 
final  aloneness,  and  his  last  responsibility  for  life, 
then  he  must  expect  woman  to  dash  from  disaster 
to  disaster,  rootless  and  uncontrolled. 

'^On  revient  toujours  a  son  premier  amour." 
It  sounds  like  a  cynicism  to-day.  As  if  we  really 
meant:  ^^On  ne  revient  jamais  a  son  premier 
amour!*  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  man  never 
leaves  his  first  love,  once  the  love  is  established. 
He  may  leave  his  first  attempt  at  love.  Once  a 
man  establishes  a  full  dynamic  communication 
at  the  deeper  and  the  higher  centers,  with  a 
woman,  this  can  never  be  broken.  But  sex  in 
the  head  breaks  down,  and  half  circuits  break 
down.  Once  the  full  circuit  is  established,  how- 
ever, this  can  never  break  down. 

Nowadays,  alas,  we  start  of?  self-conscious, 
with  sex  in  the  head.  We  find  a  woman  who  is 
the  same.  We  marry  because  we  are  "pals." 
The  sex  is  a  rather  nasty  fiasco.  We  keep  up  a 
pretense  of  "pals" — and  nice  love.     Sex  spins 


PARENT  LOVE  179 

Wilder  in  the  head  than  ever.  There  is  either  a 
family  of  children  whom  the  dissatisfied  parents 
can  devote  themselves  to,  thereby  perverting  the 
miserable  little  creatures:  or  else  there  is  a 
divorce.  And  at  the  great  dynamic  centers 
nothing  has  happened  at  all.  Blank  nothing. 
There  has  been  no  vital  interchange  at  all  in  the 
whole  of  this  beautiful  marriage  affair. 

Establish  between  yourself  and  another  indi- 
vidual a  dynamic  connection  at  only  two  of  the 
four  further  poles,  and  you  will  have  the  devil  of 
a  job  to  break  the  connection.  Especially  if  it  be 
the  first  connection  you  have  made.  Especially  if 
the  other  individual  be  the  first  in  the  field. 

This  is  the  case  of  the  parents.  Parents  are  first 
in  the  field  of  the  child's  further  consciousness. 
They  are  criminal  trespassers  in  that  field.  But 
that  makes  no  matter.  They  are  first  in  the  field. 
They  establish  a  dynamic  connection  between 
the  two  upper  centers,  the  centers  of  the  throat, 
the  centers  of  the  higher  dynamic  sympathy  and 
cognition.  They  establish  this  circuit.  And 
break  it  if  you  can.  Very  often  not  even  death 
can  break  it. 

And  as  we  see,  the  establishment  of  the  upper 
love-and-cognition  circuit  inevitably  provokes 
the  lower  sex-sensual  centers  into  action,  even 


i8o        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

though  there  be  no  correspondence  on  the  sen- 
sual plane  between  the  two  individuals  con- 
cerned. Then  see  what  happens.  If  you  want 
to  see  the  real  desirable  wife-spirit,  look  at  a 
mother  with  her  boy  of  eighteen.  How  she 
serves  him,  how  she  stimulates  him,  how  her  true 
female  self  is  his,  is  wife-submissive  to  him  as 
never,  never  it  could  be  to  a  husband.  This  is 
the  quiescent,  flowering  love  of  a  mature  woman. 
It  is  the  very  flower  of  a  woman's  love :  sexually 
asking  nothing,  asking  nothing  of  the  beloved, 
save  that  he  shall  be  himself,  and  that  for  his 
living  he  shall  accept  the  gift  of  her  love.  This 
is  the  perfect  flower  of  married  love,  which  a 
husband  should  put  in  his  cap  as  he  goes  forward 
into  the  future  in  his  supreme  activity.  For  the 
husband,  it  is  a  great  pledge,  and  a  blossom.  For 
the  son  also  it  seems  wonderful.  The  woman 
now  feels  for  the  first  time  as  a  true  wife  might 
feel.    And  her  feeling  is  towards  her  son. 

Or,  instead  of  mother  and  son,  read  father  and 
daughter. 

And  then  what?  The  son  gets  on  swimmingly 
for  a  time,  till  he  is  faced  with  the  actual  fact 
of  sex  necessity.  He  gleefully  inherits  his  ado- 
lescence and  the  world  at  large,  without  an  ob- 
stacle in  his  way,   mother-supported,   mother- 


PARENT  LOVE  i8i 

loved.  Everything  comes  to  him  in  glamour,  he 
feels  he  sees  wondrous  much,  understands  a 
whole  heaven,  mother-stimulated.  Think  of  the 
power  which  a  mature  woman  thus  infuses  into 
her  boy.  He  flares  up  like  a  flame  in  oxygen. 
No  wonder  they  say  geniuses  mostly  have  great 
mothers.    They  mostly  have  sad  fates. 

And  then? — and  then,  with  this  glamorous 
youth?  What  is  he  actually  to  do  with  his  sen- 
sual, sexual  self?  Bury  it?  Or  make  an  effort 
with  a  stranger?  For  he  is  taught,  even  by  his 
mother,  that  his  manhood  must  not  forego  sex. 
Yet  he  is  linked  up  in  ideal  love  already,  the  best 
he  will  ever  know. 

No  woman  will  give  to  a  stranger  that  which 
she  gives  to  her  son,  her  father  or  her  brother: 
that  beautiful  and  glamorous  submission  which 
is  truly  the  wife-submission.  To  a  stranger,  a 
husband,  a  woman  insists  on  being  queen,  god- 
dess, mistress,  the  positive,  the  adored,  the  first 
and  foremost  and  the  one  and  only.  This  she 
will  not  ask  from  her  near  blood-kin.  Of  her 
blood-kin,  there  is  always  one  she  will  love  de- 
votedly. 

And  so,  the  charming  young  girl  who  adores 
her  father,  or  one  of  her  brothers,  is  sought  in 
marriage  by  the  attractive  young  man  who  loves 


1 82        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

his  mother  devotedly.  And  a  pretty  business  the 
marriage  is.  We  can't  think  of  it.  Of  course 
they  may  be  good  pals.  It's  the  only  thing  left. 
And  there  we  are.  The  game  is  spoilt  before 
it  is  begun.  Within  the  circle  of  the  family, 
owing  to  our  creed  of  insatiable  love,  intense 
adult  sympathies  are  provoked  in  quite  young 
children.  In  Italy,  the  Italian  stimulates  adult 
sex-consciousness  and  sex-sympathy  in  his  child, 
almost  deliberately.  But  with  us,  it  is  usually 
spiritual  sympathy  and  spiritual  criticism.  The 
adult  experiences  are  provoked,  the  adult  devo- 
tional sympathies  are  linked  up,  prematurely,  as 
far  as  the  child  is  concerned.  We  have  the  heart- 
wringing  spectacle  of  intense  parent-child  love,  a 
love  intense  as  the  love  of  man  and  woman,  but 
not  sexual ;  or  else  the  great  brother-sister  devo- 
tion. And  thus,  the  great  love-experience  which 
should  lie  in  the  future  is  forestalled.  Within 
the  family,  the  love-bond  forms  quickly,  without 
the  shocks  and  ruptures  inevitable  between 
strangers.  And  so,  it  is  easiest,  intensest — and 
seems  the  best.  It  seems  the  highest.  You  will 
not  easily  get  a  man  to  believe  that  his  carnal 
love  for  the  woman  he  has  made  his  wife  is  as 
high  a  love  as  that  he  felt  for  his  mother  or 
sister. 


PARENT  LOVE  183 

The  cream  is  licked  off  from  life  before  the 
boy  or  the  girl  is  twenty.  Afterwards — repeti- 
tion, disillusion,  and  barrenness. 

And  the  cause? — always  the  same.  That  par- 
ents will  not  make  the  great  resolution  to  come 
to  rest  within  themselves,  to  possess  their  own 
souls  in  quiet  and  fullness.  The  man  has  not  the 
courage  to  withdraw  at  last  into  his  own  souPs 
stillness  and  aloneness,  and  then,  passionately 
and  faithfully,  to  strive  for  the  living  future. 
The  woman  has  not  the  courage  to  give  up  her 
hopeless  insistence  on  love  and  her  endless  de- 
mand for  love,  demand  of  being  loved.  She  has 
not  the  greatness  of  soul  to  relinquish  her  own 
self-assertion,  and  believe  in  the  man  who  be- 
lieves in  himself  and  in  his  own  souPs  efforts : — 
if  there  are  any  such  men  nowadays,  which  is 
very  doubtful. 

Alas,  alas,  the  future!  Your  son,  who  has 
tasted  the  real  beauty  of  wife-response  in  his 
mother  or  sister.  Your  daughter,  who  adores 
her  brother,  and  who  marries  some  woman's  son. 
They  are  so  charming  to  look  at,  such  a  lovely 
couple.  And  at  first  it  is  all  such  a  good  game, 
such  good  sport.  Then  each  one  begins  to  fret 
for  the  beauty  of  the  lost,  non-sexual,  partial 
relationship.    The  sexual  part  of  marriage  has 


1 84       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

proved  so — ^so  empty.  While  that  other  love- 
liest thing — the  poignant  touch  of  devotion  felt 
for  mother  or  father  or  brother — why,  this  is 
missing  altogether.  The  best  is  missing.  The 
rest  isn't  worth  much.  Ah  well,  such  is  life. 
Settle  down  to  it,  and  bring  up  the  children  care- 
fully to  more  of  the  same. — ^The  future! — 
You've  had  all  your  good  days  by  the  time  you're 
twenty. 

And,  I  ask  you,  what  good  will  psychoanalysis 
do  you  in  this  state  of  affairs?  Introduce  an 
extra  sex-motive  to  excite  you  for  a  bit  and 
make  you  feel  how  thrillingly  immoral  things 
really  are.  And  then — it  all  goes  flat  again. 
Father  complex,  mother  complex,  incest  dreams : 
pah,  when  we've  had  the  little  excitement  out 
of  them  we  shall  forget  them  as  we  have  forgot- 
ten so  many  other  catch-words.  And  we  shall 
be  just  where  we  were  before:  unless  we  are 
worse,  with  more  sex  in  the  head,  and  more  in- 
troversion, only  more  brazen. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE 

HERE  is  a  very  vicious  circle.  And  how  to 
get  out  of  it?  In  the  first  place,  v^e  have 
to  break  the  love-ideal,  once  and  for  all.  Love, 
as  we  see,  is  not  the  only  dynamic.  Taking  love 
in  its  greatest  sense,  and  making  it  embrace  every 
form  of  sympathy,  every  flow  from  the  great 
sympathetic  centers  of  the  human  body,  still  it 
is  not  the  whole  of  the  dynamic  flow,  it  is  only 
the  one-half.  There  is  always  the  other  volun- 
tary flow  to  reckon  with,  the  intense  motion  of 
independence  and  singleness  of  self,  the  pride  of 
isolation,  and  the  profound  fulfillment  through 
power. 

The  very  first  thing  of  all  to  be  recognized  is 
the  danger  of  idealism.  It  is  the  one  besetting 
sin  of  the  human  race.  It  means  the  fall  into  au- 
tomatism, mechanism,  and  nullity. 

We  know  that  life  issues  spontaneously  at  the 
great  nodes  of  the  psyche,  the  great  nerve-cen- 
ters.    At  first  these  are  four  only:  then,  after 

i8s 


i86       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

puberty,  they  become  eight:  later  there  may 
still  be  an  extension  of  the  dynamic  conscious- 
ness, a  further  polarization.  But  eight  is  enough 
at  the  moment. 

First  at  four,  and  then  at  eight  dynamic  cen- 
ters of  the  human  body,  the  human  nervous  sys- 
tem, life  starts  spontaneously  into  being.  The 
soul  bursts  day  by  day  into  fresh  impulses,  fresh 
desire,  fresh  purpose,  at  these  our  polar  centers. 
And  from  these  dynamic  generative  centers  issue 
the  vital  currents  which  put  us  into  connection 
vs^ith  our  object.  We  have  really  no  will  and  no 
choice,  in  the  first  place.  It  is  our  soul  which 
acts  within  us,  day  by  day  unfolding  us  according 
to  our  own  nature. 

From  the  objective  circuits  and  from  the  sub- 
jective circuits  which  establish  and  fulfill  them- 
selves at  the  first  four  centers  of  consciousness 
we  derive  our  first  being,  our  child-being,  and 
also  our  first  mind,  our  child-mind.  By  the  ob- 
jective circuits  we  mean  those  circuits  which  are 
established  between  the  self  and  some  external 
object:  mother,  father,  sister,  cat,  dog,  bird,  or 
even  tree  or  plant,  or  even  further  still,  some 
particular  place,  some  particular  Inanimate  ob- 
ject, a  knife  or  a  chair  or  a  cap  or  a  doll  or  a 
wooden  horse.     For  we  must  insist  that  every 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  187 

object  which  really  enters  effectively  into  our 
lives  does  so  by  direct  connection.  If  I  love  my 
mother,  it  is  because  there  is  established  between 
me  and  her  a  direct,  powerful  circuit  of  vital 
magnetism,  call  it  what  you  will,  but  a  direct 
flow  of  dynamic  vital  interchange  and  inter- 
course. I  will  not  call  this  vital  flow  a  force, 
because  it  depends  on  the  incomprehensible  ini- 
tiative and  control  of  the  individual  soul  or  self. 
Force  is  that  which  is  directed  only  from  some 
universal  will  or  law.  Life  is  always  individual, 
and  therefore  never  controlled  by  one  law,  one 
God.  And  therefore,  since  the  living  really  sway 
the  universe,  even  if  unknowingly;  therefore 
there  is  no  one  universal  law,  even  for  the  phys- 
ical forces.  Because  we  insist  that  even  the  sun 
depends,  for  its  heart-beat,  its  respiration,  its 
pivotal  motion,  on  the  beating  hearts  of  men  and 
beast,  on  the  dynamic  of  the  soul-impulse  in  indi- 
vidual creatures.  It  is  from  the  aggregate  heart- 
beat of  living  individuals,  of  we  know  not  how 
many  or  what  sort  of  worlds,  that  the  sun  rests 
stable. 

Which  may  be  dismissed  as  metaphysics,  al- 
though it  is  quite  as  valid  or  even  as  demon- 
strable as  Newton's  Law  of  Gravitation,  which 


1 88       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

law  still  remains  a  law,  even  if  not  quite  so  abso- 
lute as  heretofore. 

But  this  is  a  digression.  The  argument  is,  that 
between  an  individual  and  any  external  object 
with  which  he  has  an  affective  connection,  there 
exists  a  definite  vital  flow,  as  definite  and  con- 
crete as  the  electric  current  whose  polarized  cir- 
cuit sets  our  tram-cars  running  and  our  lamps 
shining,  or  our  Marconi  wires  vibrating. 
Whether  this  object  be  human,  or  animal,  or 
plant,  or  quite  inanimate,  there  is  still  a  circuit. 
My  dog,  my  canary  has  a  polarized  connection 
with  me.  Nay,  the  very  cells  in  the  ash-tree  I 
loved  as  a  child  had  a  dynamic  vibratory  con- 
nection with  the  nuclei  in  my  own  centers  of 
primary  consciousness.  And  further  still,  the 
boots  I  have  worn  are  so  saturated  with  my  own 
magnetism,  my  own  vital  activity,  that  if  any- 
one else  wear  them  I  feel  it  is  a  trespass,  almost 
as  if  another  man  used  my  hand  to  knock  away 
a  fly.  I  doubt  very  much  if  a  blood-hound,  when 
it  takes  a  scent,  smells^  in  our  sense  of  the  word. 
It  receives  at  the  infinitely  sensitive  telegraphic 
center  of  the  dog's  nostrils  the  vital  vibration 
which  remains  in  the  inanimate  object  from  the 
individual  with  whom  the  object  was  associated. 
I  should  like  to  know  if  a  dog  would  trace  a  pair 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  189 

of  quite  new  shoes  which  had  merely  been 
dragged  at  the  end  of  a  string.  That  is,  does  he 
follow  the  smell  of  the  leather  itself,  or  the  vibra- 
tion track  of  the  individual  whose  vitality  is 
communicated  to  the  leather? 

So,  there  is  a  definite  vibratory  rapport  be- 
tween a  man  and  his  surroundings,  once  he  defi- 
nitely gets  into  contact  with  these  surroundings. 
Any  particular  locality,  any  house  which  has 
been  lived  in  has  a  vibration,  a  transferred  vital- 
ity of  its  own.  This  is  either  sympathetic  or  anti- 
pathetic to  the  succeeding  individual  in  varying 
degree.  But  certain  it  is  that  the  inhabitants 
who  live  at  the  foot  of  Etna  will  always  have  a 
certain  pitch  of  life-vibration,  antagonistic  to 
the  pitch  of  vibration  even  of  a  Palermitan,  in 
some  measure.  And  old  houses  are  saturated 
with  human  presence,  at  last  to  a  degree  of  inde- 
cency, unbearable.  And  tradition,  in  its  most 
elemental  sense,  means  the  continuing  of  the 
same  peculiar  pitch  of  vital  vibration. 

Such  is  the  objective  dynamic  flow  between 
the  psychic  poles  of  the  individual  and  the  sub- 
stance of  the  external  object,  animate  or  inan- 
imate. The  subjective  dynamic  flow  is  estab- 
lished between  the  four  primary  poles  within 
the  individual.     Every  dynamic  connection  be- 


I90        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

gins  from  one  or  the  other  of  the  sympathetic 
centers:  is,  or  should  be,  almost  immediately 
polarized  from  the  corresponding  voluntary 
center.  Then  a  complete  flow  is  set  up,  in  one 
plane.  But  this  always  rouses  the  activity  on 
the  other,  corresponding  plane,  more  or  less  in- 
tense. There  is  a  whole  field  of  consciousness 
established,  with  positive  polarity  of  the  first 
plane,  negative  polarity  of  the  second.  Which 
being  so,  a  whole  fourfold  field  of  dynamic 
consciousness  now  working  within  the  individ- 
ual, direct  cognition  takes  place.  The  mind  be- 
gins to  know,  and  to  strive  to  know. 

The  business  of  the  mind  is  first  and  foremost 
the  pure  joy  of  knowing  and  comprehending  the 
pure  joy  of  consciousness.  The  second  business 
is  to  act  as  medium,  as  interpreter,  as  agent  be- 
tween the  individual  and  his  object.  The  mind 
should  not  act  as  a  director  or  controller  of  the 
spontaneous  centers.  These  the  soul  alone  must 
control :  the  soul  being  that  forever  unknowable 
reality  which  causes  us  to  rise  into  being.  There 
is  continual  conflict  between  the  soul,  which  is 
for  ever  sending  forth  incalculable  impulses, 
and  the  psyche,  which  is  conservative,  and  wishes 
to  persist  in  its  old  motions,  and  the  mind,  which 
wishes  to  have  ^'freedom,"  that  is  spasmodic, 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  191 

idea-driven  control.  Mind,  and  conservative 
psyche,  and  the  incalculable  soul,  these  three  are 
a  trinity  of  powers  in  every  human  being.  But 
there  is  something  even  beyond  these.  It  is  the 
individual  in  his  pure  singleness,  in  his  totality 
of  consciousness,  in  his  oneness  of  being:  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  is  with  us  after  our  Pentecost, 
and  which  we  may  not  deny.  When  I  say  to 
myself:  "I  am  wrong,''  knowing  with  sudden 
insight  that  I  am  wrong,  then  this  is  the  whole 
self  speaking,  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  no  piece  of 
mental  inference.  It  is  not  just  the  soul  sending 
forth  a  flash.  It  is  my  whole  being  speaking  in 
one  voice,  soul  and  mind  and  psyche  transfigured 
into  oneness.  This  voice  of  my  being  I  may 
never  deny.  When  at  last,  in  all  my  storms,  my 
whole  self  speaks,  then  there  is  a  pause.  The 
soul  collects  itself  into  pure  silence  and  isolation 
— perhaps  after  much  pain.  The  mind  suspends 
its  knowledge,  and  waits.  The  psyche  becomes 
strangely  still.  And  then,  after  the  pause,  there 
is  fresh  beginning,  a  new  life  adjustment.  Con- 
science is  the  being's  consciousness,  when  the 
individual  is  conscious  in  toto,  when  he  knows 
in  full.  It  is  something  which  includes  and 
which  far  surpasses  mental  consciousness.  Every 
man  must  live  as  far  as  he  can  by  his  own  soul'c 


192       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

conscience.  But  not  according  to  any  ideal.  To 
submit  the  conscience  to  a  creed,  or  an  idea,  or 
a  tradition,  or  even  an  impulse,  is  our  ruin. 

To  make  the  mind  the  absolute  ruler  is  as  good 
as  making  a  Cook's  tourist-interpreter  a  king  and 
a  god,  because  he  can  speak  several  languages, 
and  make  an  Arab  understand  that  an  English- 
man wants  fish  for  supper.  And  to  make  an 
ideal  a  ruling  principle  is  about  as  stupid  as  if 
a  bunch  of  travelers  should  never  cease  giving 
each  other  and  their  dragoman  sixpence,  because 
the  dragoman's  main  idea  of  virtue  is  the  virtue 
of  sixpence-giving.  In  the  same  way,  we  know 
we  cannot  live  purely  by  impulse.  Neither  can 
we  live  solely  by  tradition.  We  must  live  by  all 
three,  ideal,  impulse,  and  tradition,  each  in  its 
hour.  But  the  real  guide  is  the  pure  conscience, 
the  voice  of  the  self  in  its  wholeness,  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

We  have  fallen  now  into  the  mistake  of  ideal- 
ism. Man  always  falls  into  one  of  the  three  mis- 
takes. In  China,  it  is  tradition.  And  in  the 
South  Seas,  it  seems  to  have  been  impulse.  Ours 
is  idealism.  Each  of  the  three  modes  is  a  true 
life-mode.  But  any  one,  alone  or  dominant, 
brings  us  to  destruction.  We  must  depend  on  the 
wholeness  of  our  being,  ultimately  only  on  that, 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  193 

which  IS  our  Holy  Ghost  within  us.  Whereas, 
in  an  ideal  of  love  and  benevolence,  we  have 
tried  to  automatize  ourselves  into  little  love- 
engines  always  stoked  with  the  sorrows  or  beau- 
ties of  other  people,  so  that  we  can  get  up  steam 
of  charity  or  righteous  wrath.  A  great  trick  is 
to  pour  on  the  fire  the  oil  of  our  indignation  at 
somebody  else's  wickedness,  and  then,  when 
weVe  got  up  steam  like  hell,  back  the  engine  and 
run  bish!  smash!  against  the  belly  of  the  of- 
fender. Because  he  said  he  didn't  want  to  love 
any  more,  we  hate  him  for  evermore,  and  try  to 
run  over  him,  every  bit  of  him,  with  our  love- 
tanks.  And  all  the  time  we  yell  at  him :  "Will 
you  deny  love,  you  villain?  Will  you?"  And 
by  the  time  he  faintly  squeaks,  "I  want  to  be 
loved!  I  want  to  be  loved  I"  we  have  got  so  used 
to  running  over  him  with  our  love-tanks  that  we 
don't  feel  in  a  hurry  to  leave  off. 


There  are  the  two  parrot-threats  of  love,  on 
which  our  loving  centuries  have  run  as  on  a  pair 
of  railway-lines.  Excuse  me  if  I  want  to  get  out 
of  the  train.  Excuse  me  if  I  can't  get  up  any 
love-steam  any  more.    My  boilers  are  burst. 


194       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

We  have  made  a  mistake,  laying  down  love 
like  the  permanent  way  of  a  great  emotional 
transport  system.  There  we  are,  however,  run- 
ning on  wheels  on  the  lines  of  our  love.  And  of 
course  we  have  only  two  directions,  forwards 
and  backwards.  ^'Onward,  Christian  soldiers, 
towards  the  great  terminus  where  bottles  of  ster- 
ilized milk  for  the  babies  are  delivered  at  the 
bedroom  windows  by  noiseless  aeroplanes  each 
morn,  where  the  science  of  dentistry  is  so  perfect 
that  teeth  are  planted  in  a  man's  mouth  without 
his  knowing  it,  where  twilight  sleep  is  so  de- 
licious that  every  woman  longs  for  her  next  con- 
finement, and  where  nobody  ever  has  to  do  any- 
thing except  turn  a  handle  now  and  then  in  a 
spirit  of  universal  love — "  That  is  the  forward 
direction  of  the  English-speaking  race.  The 
Germans  unwisely  backed  their  engine.  "We 
have  a  city  of  light.  But  instead  of  lying  ahead 
it  lies  direct  behind  us.  So  reverse  engines.  Re- 
verse engines,  and  away,  away  to  our  city,  where 
the  sterilized  milk  is  delivered  by  noiseless  aero- 
planes, at  the  very  precise  minute  when  our 
great  doctors  of  the  Fatherland  have  diagnosed 
that  it  is  good  for  you:  where  the  teeth  are  not 
only  so  painlessly  planted  that  they  grow  like 
living  rock,  but  where  their  composition  is  such 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  195 

that  the  friction  of  eating  stimulates  the  cells 
of  the  jaw-bone  and  develops  the  superman 
strength  of  will  which  makes  us  gods:  and  where 
not  only  is  twilight  sleep  serene,  but  into  the 
sleeper  are  inculcated  the  most  useful  and  in- 
structive dreams,  calculated  to  perfect  the  char- 
acter of  the  young  citizen  at  this  crucial  period, 
and  to  enlighten  permanently  the  miad  of  the 
happy  mother,  with  regard  to  her  new  duties 
towards  her  child  and  towards  our  great  Father- 
land  " 

Here  you  see  we  are,  on  the  railway,  with  New 
Jerusalem  ahead,  and  New  Jerusalem  away  be- 
hind us.  But  of  course  it  was  very  wrong  of  the 
Germans  to  reverse  their  engines,  and  cause  one 
long  collision  all  along  the  line.  Why  should 
we  go  their  way  to  the  New  Jerusalem,  when  of 
course  they  might  so  easily  have  kept  on  going 
our  way.  And  now  there's  wreckage  all  along 
the  line!  But  clear  the  way  is  our  motto — or 
make  the  Germans  clear  it.  Because  get  on  we 
will. 

Meanwhile  we  sit  rather  in  the  cold,  waiting 
for  the  train  to  get  a  start.  People  keep  on  sig- 
naling with  green  lights  and  red  lights.  And  it's 
all  very  bewildering. 

As  for  me,  I'm  off.     I'm  damned  if  I'll  be 


196       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

shunted  along  any  more.  And  I'm  thrice  damned 
if  I'll  go  another  yard  towards  that  sterilized 
New  Jerusalem,  either  forwards  or  backwards. 
New  Jerusalem  may  rot,  if  it  waits  for  me.  I'm 
not  going. 

So  good-by!  There  we  leave  humanity,  en- 
camped in  an  appalling  mess  beside  the  railway- 
smash  of  love,  sitting  down,  however,  and  hav- 
ing not  a  bad  time,  some  of  'em,  feeding  them- 
selves fat  on  the  plunder :  others,  further  down 
the  line,  with  mouths  green  from  eating  grass. 
But  all  grossly,  stupidly,  automatically  gabbling 
about  getting  the  love-service  running  again,  the 
trains  booked  for  the  New  Jerusalem  well  on  the 
way  once  more.  And  occasionally  a  good  engine 
gives  a  screech  of  love,  and  something  seems  to 
be  about  to  happen.  And  sometimes  there  is 
enough  steam  to  set  the  indignation-whistles 
whistling.  But  never  any  more  will  there  be 
enough  love-steam  to  get  the  system  properly 
running.    It  is  done. 

Good-by,  then!  You  may  have  laid  your  line 
from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  infinite.  But 
still  there's  plenty  of  hinterland.  I'll  go.  Good- 
by.  Ach,  it  will  be  so  nice  to  be  alone :  not  to 
hear  you,  not  to  see  you,  not  to  smell  you,  hu- 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  197 

manity.      I    wish    you    no    ill,    but    wisdom. 
Good-by! 

To  be  alone  with  one's  own  soul.  Not  to  be 
alone  without  my  own  soul,  mind  you.  But  to 
be  alone  with  one's  own  soul !  This,  and  the  joy 
of  it,  is  the  real  goal  of  love.  My  own  soul,  and 
myself.  Not  my  ego,  my  conceit  of  myself.  But 
my  very  soul.  To  be  at  one  in  my  own  self.  Not 
to  be  questing  any  more.  Not  to  be  yearning, 
seeking,  hoping,  desiring,  aspiring.  But  to 
pause,  and  be  alone. 

And  to  have  one's  own  ^^gentle  spouse"  by 
one's  side,  of  course,  to  dig  one  in  the  ribs  oc- 
casionally. Because  really,  being  alone  in  peace 
means  being  two  people  together.  Two  people 
who  can  be  silent  together,  and  not  conscious  of 
one  another  outwardly.  Me  in  my  silence,  she 
in  hers,  and  the  balance,  the  equilibrium,  the 
pure  circuit  between  us.  With  occasional  lapses 
of  course :  digs  in  the  ribs  if  one  gets  too  vague 
or  self-sufficient. 

They  say  it  is  better  to  travel  than  to  arrive. 
It's  not  been  my  experience,  at  least.  The  jour- 
ney of  love  has  been  rather  a  lacerating,  if  well- 
worth-it,  journey.  But  to  come  at  last  to  a  nice 
place  under  the  trees,  with  your  "amiable 
spouse"  who  has  at  last  learned  to  hold  her 


198       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

tongue  and  not  to  bother  about  rights  and 
wrongs:  her  own  particularly.  And  then  to 
pitch  a  camp,  and  cook  your  rabbit,  and  eat  him : 
and  to  possess  your  own  soul  in  silence,  and  to 
feel  all  the  clamor  lapse.  That  is  the  best  I 
know. 

I  think  it  is  terrible  to  be  young.  The  ecstasies 
and  agonies  of  love,  the  agonies  and  ecstasies  of 
fear  and  doubt  and  drop-by-drop  fulfillment, 
realization.  The  awful  process  of  human  rela- 
tionships, love  and  marital  relationships  espe- 
cially. Because  we  all  make  a  very,  very  bad 
start  to-day,  with  our  idea  of  love  in  our  head, 
and  our  sex  in  our  head  as  well.  All  the  fight 
till  one  is  bled  of  one's  self-consciousness  and 
sex-in-the-head.  All  the  bitterness  of  the  con- 
flict with  this  devil  of  an  amiable  spouse,  who 
has  got  herself  so  stuck  in  her  own  head.  It  is 
terrible  to  be  young. — But  one  fights  one's  way 
through  it,  till  one  Is  cleaned :  the  self-conscious- 
ness and  sex-idea  burned  out  of  one,  cauterized 
out  bit  by  bit,  and  the  self  whole  again,  and  at 
last  free. 

The  best  thing  I  have  known  is  the  stillness 
of  accomplished  marriage,  when  one  possesses 
one's  own  soul  in  silence,  side  by  side  with  the 
amiable  spouse,  and  has  left  off  craving  and  rav- 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  199 

Ing  and  being  only  half  one's  self.  But  I  must 
say,  I  know  a  great  deal  more  about  the  craving 
and  raving  and  sore  ribs,  than  about  the  accom- 
plishment. And  I  must  confess  that  I  feel  this 
self-same  ^'accomplishment"  of  the  fulfilled  be- 
ing is  only  a  preparation  for  new  responsibilities 
ahead,  new  unison  in  effort  and  conflict,  the 
effort  to  make,  with  other  men,  a  little  new  way 
into  the  future,  and  to  break  through  the  hedge 
of  the  many. 

But — to  your  tents,  my  Israel.  And  to  that 
precious  baby  youVe  left  slumbering  there. 
What  I  meant  to  say  was,  in  each  phase  of  life 
you  have  a  great  circuit  of  human  relationship 
to  establish  and  fulfill.  In  childhood,  it  is  the 
circuit  of  family  love,  established  at  the  first 
four  consciousness  centers,  and  gradually  ful- 
filling itself,  completing  itself.  At  adolescence, 
the  first  circuit  of  family  love  should  be  com- 
pleted, dynamically  finished.  And  then,  it  falls 
into  quiescence.  After  puberty,  family  love 
should  fall  quiescent  in  a  child.  The  love  never 
breaks.  It  continues  static  and  basic,  the  basis 
of  the  emotional  psyche,  the  foundation  of  the 
self.  It  is  like  the  moon  when  the  moon  at  last 
subsides  into  her  eternal  orbit,  round  the  earth. 
She  travels  in  her  orbit  so  inevitably  that  she 


200       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

forgets,  and  becomes  unaware.  She  only  knits 
her  brows  over  the  earth's  greater  aberrations 
in  space. 

The  circuit  of  parental  love,  once  fulfilled,  is 
not  done  away  with,  but  only  established  into 
silence.  The  child  is  then  free  to  establish  the 
new  connections,  in  which  he  surpasses  his  par- 
ents. And  let  us  repeat,  parents  should  never  try 
to  establish  adult  relations,  of  sympathy  or  in- 
terest or  anything  else,  between  themselves  and 
their  children.  The  attempt  to  do  so  only  de- 
ranges the  deep  primary  circuit  which  is  the 
dynamic  basis  of  our  living.  It  is  a  clambering 
upwards  only  by  means  of  a  broken  foundation. 
Parents  should  remain  parents,  children  chil- 
dren, for  ever,  and  the  great  gulf  preserved  be- 
tween the  two.  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother 
should  always  be  a  leading  commandment.  But 
this  can  only  take  place  when  father  and  mother 
keep  their  true  parental  distances,  dignity,  re- 
serve, and  limitation.  As  soon  as  father  and 
mother  try  to  become  the  friends  and  compan- 
ions of  their  children,  they  break  the  root  of  life, 
they  rupture  the  deepest  dynamic  circuit  of  liv- 
ing, they  derange  the  whole  flow  of  life  for 
themselves  and  their  children. 

For  let  us  reiterate  and  reiterate :  you  cannot 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  201 

mingle  and  confuse  the  various  modes  of  dy- 
namic love.  If  you  try,  you  produce  horrors. 
You  cannot  plant  the  heart  below  the  diaphragm 
or  put  an  ocular  eye  in  the  navel.  No  more  can 
you  transfer  parent  love  into  friend  love  or  adult 
love.  Parent  love  is  established  at  the  great 
primary  centers,  where  man  is  father  and  child, 
playmate  and  brother,  but  where  he  cannot  be 
comrade  or  lover.  Comrade  and  lover,  this  is 
the  dynamic  activity  of  the  further  centers,  the 
second  four  centers.  And  these  second  four  cen- 
ters must  be  active  in  the  parent,  their  intense  cir- 
cuit established  even  if  not  fulfilled,  long  before 
the  child  is  born.  The  circuit  of  friendship,  of 
personal  companionship,  of  sexual  love  must 
needs  be  established  before  the  child  is  begotten, 
or  at  least  before  it  attains  to  adolescence.  These 
circuits  of  the  extended  field  are  already  fully 
established  in  the  parent  before  the  centers  of 
correspondence  in  the  child  are  even  formed. 
When  therefore  the  four  great  centers  of  the  ex- 
tended consciousness  arouses  in  a  child,  at  ado- 
lescence, they  must  needs  seek  a  strange  comple- 
ment, a  foreign  conjunction. 

Not  only  is  this  the  case,  but  the  actual  dy- 
namic impulse  of  the  new  life  which  rouses  at 
puberty  is  alien  to  the  original  dynamic  flow. 


202       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

The  new  wave-length  by  no  means  corresponds. 
The  new  vibration  by  no  means  harmonizes. 
Force  the  two  together,  and  you  cause  a  terrible 
frictional  excitement  and  jarring.  It  is  this  in- 
stinctive recognition  of  the  different  dynamic 
vibrations  from  different  centers,  in  different 
modes,  and  in  different  directions  of  positive  and 
negative,  which  lies  at  the  base  of  savage  taboo. 
After  puberty,  members  of  one  family  should 
be  taboo  to  one  another.  There  should  be  the 
most  definite  limits  to  the  degree  of  contact. 
And  mothers-in-law  should  be  taboo  to  their 
daughters'  husbands,  and  fathers-in-law  to  their 
sons'  wives.  We  must  again  begin  to  learn  the 
great  laws  of  the  first  dynamic  life-circuits. 
These  laws  we  now  make  havoc  of,  and  conse- 
quently we  make  havoc  of  our  own  soul,  psyche, 
mind  and  health. 

This  book  is  written  primarily  concerning  the 
child's  consciousness.  It  is  not  intended  to  enter 
the  field  of  the  post-puberty  consciousness.  But 
yet,  the  dynamic  relation  of  the  child  is  estab- 
lished so  directly  with  the  physical  and  psychical 
soul  of  the  parent,  that  to  get  any  inkling  of 
dynamic  child-consciousness  we  must  under- 
stand something  of  parent-consciousness. 

We  assert  that  the  parent-child  love-mode  ex- 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  203 

eludes  the  possibility  of  the  man-and-woman,  or 
friend-and-friend  love  mode.  We  assert  that 
the  polarity  of  the  first  four  poles  is  inconsistent 
with  the  polarity  of  the  second  four  poles.  Nay, 
between  the  two  great  fields  is  a  certain  dynamic 
opposition,  resistance,  even  antipathy.  So  that 
in  the  natural  course  of  life  there  is  no  possibil- 
ity of  confusing  parent  love  and  adult  love. 

But  we  are  mental  creatures,  and  with  the  ex- 
plosive and  mechanistic  aid  of  ideas  we  can  per- 
vert the  whole  psyche.  Only,  however,  in  a  de- 
structive degree,  not  in  a  positive  or  constructive. 

Let  us  return  then.  In  the  ordinary  course  of 
development,  by  the  time  that  the  child  is  born 
and  grown  to  puberty  the  whole  dynamic  soul 
of  the  mother  is  engaged:  first,  with  the  chil- 
dren, and  second,  on  the  further,  higher  plane, 
with  the  husband,  and  with  her  own  friends.  So 
that  when  the  child  reaches  adolescence  it  must 
inevitably  cast  abroad  for  connection. 

But  now  let  us  remember  the  actual  state  of 
affairs  to-day,  when  the  poles  are  reversed  be- 
tween the  sexes.  The  woman  is  now  the  respon- 
sible party,  the  law-giver,  the  culture-bearer. 
She  is  the  conscious  guide  and  director  of  the 
man.  She  bears  his  soul  between  her  two  hands. 
And  her  sex  is  just  a  function  or  an  instrument 


204       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

of  power.  This  being  so,  the  man  is  really  the 
servant  and  the  fount  of  emotion,  love  and 
otherwise. 

Which  is  all  very  well,  while  the  fun  lasts. 
But  like  all  perverted  processes,  it  is  exhaustive, 
and  like  the  fun  wears  out.  Leaving  an  exhaus- 
tion, and  an  irritation.  Each  looks  on  the  other 
as  a  perverter  of  life.  Almost  invariably  a  mar- 
ried woman,  as  she  passes  the  age  of  thirty,  con- 
ceives a  dislike,  or  a  contempt  of  her  husband, 
or  a  pity  which  is  too  near  contempt.  Particu- 
larly if  he  be  a  good  husband,  a  true  modern. 
And  he,  for  his  part,  though  just  as  jarred  inside 
himself,  resents  only  the  fact  that  he  is  not  loved 
as  he  ought  to  be. 

Then  starts  a  new  game.  The  woman,  even 
the  most  virtuous,  looks  abroad  for  new  sym- 
pathy. She  will  have  a  new  man-friend,  if 
nothing  more.  But  as  a  rule  she  has  got  some- 
thing more.    She  has  got  her  children. 

A  relation  between  mother  and  child  to-day  is 
practically  never  parental.  It  is  personal — 
which  means,  it  is  critical  and  deliberate,  and 
adult  in  provocation.  The  mother,  in  her  new 
role  of  idealist  and  life-manager  never,  prac- 
tically for  one  single  moment,  gives  her  child 
the  unthinking  response  from  the  deep  dynamic 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  205 

centers.  No,  she  gives  it  what  is  good  for  it. 
She  shoves  milk  in  its  mouth  as  the  clock  strikes, 
she  shoves  it  to  sleep  when  the  milk  is  swallowed, 
and  she  shoves  it  ideally  through  baths  and  mas- 
sage, promenades  and  practice,  till  the  little  or- 
ganism develops  like  a  mushroom  to  stand  on  its 
own  feet.  Then  she  continues  her  ideal  shoving 
of  it  through  all  the  stages  of  an  ideal  up-bring- 
ing, she  loves  it  as  a  chemist  loves  his  test-tubes 
in  which  he  analyzes  his  salts.  The  poor  little 
object  is  his  mother's  ideal.  But  of  her  head  she 
dictates  his  providential  days,  and  by  the  force 
of  her  deliberate  mentally-directed  love-will  she 
pushes  him  up  into  boyhood.  The  poor  little 
devil  never  knows  one  moment  when  he  is  not 
encompassed  by  the  beautiful,  benevolent,  ideal- 
istic, Botticelli-pure,  and  finally  obscene  love- 
will  of  the  mother.  Never,  never  one  mouthful 
does  he  drink  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness: 
always  the  sterilized  milk  of  human  benevolence. 
There  is  no  mother's  milk  to-day,  save  in  tigers' 
udders,  and  in  the  udders  of  sea-whales.  Our 
children  drink  a  decoction  of  ideal  love,  at  the 
breast. 

Never  for  one  moment,  poor  baby,  the  deep 
warm  stream  of  love  from  the  mother's  bowels  to 
his  bowels.     Never  for  one  moment  the  dark 


2o6       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

proud  recoil  into  rest,  the  soul's  separation  into 
deep,  rich  independence.  Never  this  lovely  rich 
forgetfulness,  as  a  cat  trots  off  and  utterly  forgets 
her  kittens,  utterly,  richly  forgets  them,  till  sud- 
denly, click,  the  dynamic  circuit  reverses  itself 
in  her,  and  she  remembers,  and  rages  round  in  a 
frenzy,  shouting  for  her  young. 

Our  miserable  infants  never  know  this  joy  and 
richness  and  pang  of  real  maternal  warmth.  Our 
wonderful  mothers  never  let  us  out  of  their 
minds  for  one  single  moment.  Not  for  a  second 
do  they  allow  us  to  escape  from  their  ideal  be- 
nevolence. Not  one  single  breath  does  a  baby 
draw,  free  from  the  imposition  of  the  pure,  un- 
selfish, Botticelli-holy,  detestable  love-will  of 
the  mother.  Always  the  will,  the  will,  the  love- 
will,  the  ideal  will,  directed  from  the  ideal  mind. 
Always  this  stone,  this  scorpion  of  maternal 
nourishment.  Always  this  infernal  self-con- 
scious Madonna  starving  our  living  guts  and 
bullying  us  to  death  with  her  love. 

We  have  made  the  idea  supplant  both  impulse 
and  tradition.  We  have  no  spark  of  wholeness. 
And  we  live  by  an  evil  love-will.  Alas,  the  great 
spontaneous  mode  is  abrogated.  There  is  no 
lovely  great  flux  of  vital  sympathy,  no  rich  re- 
joicing of  pride  into  isolation  and  independence. 


THE  VICIOUS  CIRCLE  207 

There  is  no  reverence  for  great  traditions  of  par- 
enthood. No,  there  is  substitute  for  everything 
— life-substitute — just  as  we  have  butter-sub- 
stitute, and  meat-substitute,  and  sugar-substitute, 
and  leather-substitute,  and  silk-substitute,  so  we 
have  life-substitute.  We  have  beastly  benevo- 
lence, and  foul  good-will,  and  stinking  charity, 
and  poisonous  ideals. 

The  poor  modern  brat,  shoved  horribly  into 
life  by  an  effort  of  will,  and  shoved  up  towards 
manhood  by  every  appliance  that  can  be  applied 
to  it,  especially  the  appliance  of  the  maternal 
will,  it  is  really  too  pathetic  to  contemplate.  The 
only  thing  that  prevents  us  wringing  our  hands 
is  the  remembrance  that  the  little  devil  will 
grow  up  and  beget  other  similar  little  devils  of 
his  own,  to  invent  more  aeroplanes  and  hospitals 
and  germ-killers  and  food-substitutes  and  poison 
gases.  The  problem  of  the  future  is  a  question 
of  the  strongest  poison-gas.  Which  is  certainly 
a  very  sure  way  out  of  our  vicious  circle. 

There  is  no  way  out  of  a  vicious  circle,  of 
course,  except  breaking  the  circle.  And  since 
the  mother-child  relationship  is  to-day  the 
viciousest  of  circles,  what  are  we  to  do?  Just 
wait  for  the  results  of  the  poison-gas  competi- 
tion presumably. 


2o8       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

Oh,  ideal  humanity,  how  detestable  and  de- 
spicable you  are!  And  how  you  deserve  your 
own  poison-gases!  How  you  deserve  to  perish 
in  your  own  stink. 

It  is  no  use  contemplating  the  development  of 
the  modern  child,  born  out  of  the  mental-con- 
scious love-will,  born  to  be  another  unit  of  self- 
conscious  love-will :  an  ideal-born  beastly  little 
entity  with  a  devil's  own  will  of  its  own,  benevo- 
lent, of  course,  and  a  Satan's  own  seraphic  self- 
consciousness,  like  a  beastly  Botticelli  brat. 

Once  we  really  consider  this  modern  process 
of  life  and  the  love-will,  we  could  throw  the 
pen  away,  and  spit,  and  say  three  cheers  for  the 
inventors  of  poison-gas.  Is  there  not  an  Ameri- 
can who  is  supposed  to  have  invented  a  breath 
of  heaven  whereby,  drop  one  pop-cornful  in 
Hampstead,  one  in  Brixton,  one  in  East  Ham, 
and  one  in  Islington,  and  London  is  a  Pompeii 
in  five  minutes!  Or  was  the  American  only 
bragging?  Because  anyhow,  whom  has  he  ex- 
perimented on?  I  read  it  in  the  newspaper, 
though.  London  a  Pompeii  in  five  minutes. 
Makes  the  gods  look  silly! 


CHAPTER  XII 

LITANY   OF   EXHORTATIONS 

I  THOUGHT  I'd  better  turn  over  a  new  leaf, 
and  start  a  new  chapter.  The  intention  of 
the  last  chapter  was  to  find  a  way  out  of  the 
vicious  circle.    And  it  ended  in  poison-gas. 

Yes,  dear  reader,  so  it  did.  But  youVe  not 
silenced  me  yet,  for  all  that. 

We're  in  a  nasty  mess.  We're  in  a  vicious 
circle.  And  we're  making  a  careful  study  of 
poison-gases.  The  secret  of  Greek  fire  was  lost 
long  ago,  when  the  world  left  off  being  wonder- 
ful and  ideal.  Now  it  is  wonderful  and  ideal 
again,  much  wonderfuller  and  much  more  ideal. 
So  we  ought  to  do  something  rare  in  the  way  of 
poison-gas.  London  a  Pompeii  in  five  minutes! 
How  to  outdo  Vesuvius! — title  of  a  new  book 
by  American  authors. 

There  is  only  one  single  other  thing  to  do. 
And  it's  more  difficult  than  poison-gas.  It  is  to 
leave  off  loving.  It  is  to  leave  off  benevolent- 
ing  and   having   a   good  will.      It  is   to   cease 

209 


2IO       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

utterly.  Just  leave  off.  Oh,  parents,  see  that 
your  children  get  their  dinners  and  clean 
sheets,  but  don't  love  them.  Don't  love  them 
one  single  grain,  and  don't  let  anybody  else 
love  them.  Give  them  their  dinners  and  leave 
them  alone.  You've  already  loved  them  to  per- 
dition. Now  leave  them  alone,  to  find  their  own 
way  out. 

Wives,  don't  love  your  husbands  any  more: 
even  if  they  cry  for  it,  the  great  babies!  Sing: 
*'I've  had  enough  of  that  old  sauce."  And  leave 
off  loving  them  or  caring  for  them  one  single 
bit.  Don't  even  hate  them  or  dislike  them. 
Don't  have  any  stew  with  them  at  all.  Just  boil 
the  eggs  and  fill  the  salt-cellars  and  be  quite 
nice,  and  in  your  own  soul,  be  alone  and  be  still. 
Be  alone,  and  be  still,  preserving  all  the  human 
decencies,  and  abandoning  the  indecency  of  de- 
sires and  benevolencies  and  devotions,  those 
beastly  poison-gas  apples  of  the  Sodom  vine  of 
the  love-will. 

Wives,  don't  love  your  husbands  nor  your 
children  nor  anybody.  Sit  still,  and  say  Hush! 
And  while  you  shake  the  duster  out  of  the  draw- 
ing-room window,  say  to  yourself — "In  the 
sweetness  of  solitude."  And  when  your  hus- 
band comes  in  and  says  he's  afraid  he's  got  a 


..    LITANY  OF  EXHORTATIONS  211 

cold  and  is  going  to  have  double  pneumonia, 
say  quietly  "surely  not."  And  if  he  wants  the 
ammoniated  quinine,  give  it  him  if  he  can't 
get  it  for  himself.  But  don't  let  him  drive  you 
out  of  your  solitude,  your  singleness  within  your- 
self. And  if  your  little  boy  falls  down  the  steps 
and  makes  his  mouth  bleed,  nurse  and  comfort 
him,  but  say  to  yourself,  even  while  you  tremble 
with  the  shock:  "Alone.  Alone.  Be  alone,  my 
soul."  And  if  the  servant  smashes  three  electric- 
light  bulbs  in  three  minutes,  say  to  her:  "How 
very  inconsiderate  and  careless  of  you!"  But 
say  to  yourself :  "Don't  hear  it,  my  soul.  Don't 
take  fright  at  the  pop  of  a  light-bulb." 

Husbands,  don't  love  your  wives  any  more. 
If  they  flirt  with  men  younger  or  older  than 
yourselves,  let  your  blood  not  stir.  If  you  can  go 
away,  go  away.  But  if  you  must  stay  and  see  her, 
then  say  to  her,  "I  would  rather  you  didn't  flirt  in 
my  presence,  Eleanora."  Then,  when  she  goes  red 
and  loosens  torrents  of  indignation,  don't  answer 
any  more.  And  when  she  floods  into  tears,  say 
quietly  in  your  own  self,  "My  soul  is  my  own"; 
and  go  away,  be  alone  as  much  as  possible.  And 
when  she  works  herself  up,  and  says  she  must 
have  love  or  she  will  die,  then  say:  "Not  my 
love,  however."     And  to  all  her  threats,   her 


212       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

tears,  her  entreaties,  her  reproaches,  her  cajole- 
ments, her  winsomenesses,  answer  nothing,  but 
say  to  yourself:  ''Shall  I  be  implicated  in  this 
display  of  the  love-will?  Shall  I  be  blasted  by 
this  false  lightning?"  And  though  you  tremble 
in  every  fiber,  and  feel  sick,  vomit-sick  with  the 
scene,  still  contain  yourself,  and  say,  ''My  soul 
is  my  own.  It  shall  not  be  violated."  And 
learn,  learn,  learn  the  one  and  only  lesson  worth 
learning  at  last.  Learn  to  walk  in  the  sweetness 
of  the  possession  of  your  own  soul.  And  whether 
your  wife  weeps  as  she  takes  off  her  amber  beads 
at  night,  or  whether  your  neighbor  in  the  train 
sits  in  your  coat  bottoms,  or  whether  your 
superior  in  the  office  makes  supercilious  re- 
marks, or  your  inferior  is  familiar  and  impu- 
dent; or  whether  you  read  in  the  newspaper  that 
Lloyd  George  is  performing  another  iniquity, 
or  the  Germans  plotting  another  plot,  say  to 
yourself:  "My  soul  is  my  own.  My  soul  is 
with  myself,  and  beyond  implication."  Aiid 
wait,  quietly,  in  possession  of  your  own  soul,  till 
you  meet  another  man  who  has  made  the  choice, 
and  kept  it.  Then  you  will  know  him  by  the 
look  on  his  face :  half  a  dangerous  look,  a  look 
of  Cain,  and  half  a  look  of  gathered  beauty. 


LITANY  OF  EXHORTATIONS  213 

Then  you  two  will  make  the  nucleus  of  a  new 
society— Ooray!    Bis!    Bis! I 

But  if  you  should  never  meet  such  a  man :  and 
if  your  wife  should  torture  you  every  day  with 
her  love-will :  and  even  if  she  should  force  her- 
self into  a  consumption,  like  Catherine  Linton 
in  ^Wuthering  Heights,"  owing  to  her  obstinate 
and  determined  love-will  (which  is  quite  an- 
other matter  than  love)  :  and  if  you  see  the 
world  inventing  poison-gas  and  falling  into  its 
poisoned  grave :  never  give  in,  but  be  alone,  and 
utterly  alone  with  your  own  soul,  in  the  still- 
ness and  sweet  possession  of  your  own  soul. 
And  don't  even  be  angry.  And  never  be  sad. 
Why  should  you?    It's  not  your  affair. 

But  if  your  wife  should  accomplish  for  herself 
the  sweetness  of  her  own  soul's  possession,  then 
gently,  delicately  let  the  new  mode  assert  itself, 
the  new  mode  of  relation  between  you,  with 
something  of  spontaneous  paradise  in  it,  the 
apple  of  knowledge  at  last  digested.  But,  my 
word,  what  belly-aches  meanwhile.  That  apple 
is  harder  to  digest  than  a  lead  gun-cartridge. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

COSMOLOGICAL 

WELL,  dear  reader,  Chapter  XII  was  short, 
and  I  hope  you  found  it  sweet. 

But  remember,  this  is  an  essay  on  Child  Con- 
sciousness, not  a  tract  on  Salvation.  It  isn't  my 
fault  that  I  am  led  at  moments  into  exhortation. 

Well,  then,  what  about  it?  One  fact  now 
seems  very  clear — at  any  rate  to  me.  We've  got 
to  pause.  We  haven't  got  to  gird  our  loins  with 
a  new  frenzy  and  our  larynxes  with  a  new  Glory 
Song.  Not  a  bit  of  it.  Before  you  dash  off  to 
put  salt  on  the  tail  of  a  new  religion  or  of  a  new 
Leader  of  Men,  dear  reader,  sit  down  quietly 
and  pull  yourself  together.  Say  to  yourself: 
^^Come  now,  what  is  it  all  about?"  And  you'll 
realize,  dear  reader,  that  you're  all  in  a  fluster, 
inwardly.  Then  say  to  yourself:  "Why  am  I 
in  such  a  fluster?"  And  you'll  see  you've  no 
reason  at  all  to  be  so :  except  that  it's  rather  excit- 
ing to  be  in  a  fluster,  and  it  may  seem  rather 
stale  eggs  to  be  in  no  fluster  at  all  about  anything. 

214 


COSMOLOGICAL  215 

And  yet,  dear  little  reader,  once  you  consider 
it  quietly,  it's  so  much  nicer  not  to  be  in  a  fluster. 
It's  so  much  nicer  not  to  feel  one's  deeper  in- 
nards storming  like  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  It  is 
so  much  better  to  get  up  and  say  to  the  waters  of 
one's  own  troubled  spirit:  Peace,  be  still  .  .  .  ! 
And  they  will  be  still  .  .  .  perhaps. 

And  then  one  realizes  that  all  the  wild  storms 
of  anxiety  and  frenzy  were  only  so  much  break- 
ing of  eggs.  It  isn't  our  business  to  live  any- 
body's life,  or  to  die  anybody's  death,  except  our 
own.  Nor  to  save  anybody's  soul,  nor  to  put 
anybody  in  the  right;  nor  yet  in  the  wrong, 
which  is  more  the  point  to-day.  But  to  be  still, 
and  to  ignore  the  false  fine  frenzy  of  the  seeth- 
ing world.  To  turn  away,  now,  each  one  into  the 
stillness  and  solitude  of  his  own  soul.  And  there 
to  remain  in  the  quiet  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  is  to  each  man  his  own  true  soul. 

This  is  the  way  out  of  the  vicious  circle.  Not 
to  rush  round  on  the  periphery,  like  a  rabbit  in 
a  ring,  trying  to  break  through.  But  to  retreat 
to  the  very  center,  and  there  to  be  filled  with  a 
new  strange  stability,  polarized  in  unfathomable 
richness  with  the  center  of  centers.  We  are  so 
silly,  trying  to  invent  devices  and  machines  for 
flying  off  from  the  surface  of  the  earth.    Instead 


2i6       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

of  realizing  that  for  us  the  deep  satisfaction  lies 
not  in  escaping,  but  in  getting  into  the  perfect 
circuit  of  the  earth's  terrestrial  magnetism.  Not 
in  breaking  away.  What  is  the  good  of  trying 
to  break  away  from  one's  own?  What  is  the 
good  of  a  tree  desiring  to  fly  like  a  bird  in  the 
sky,  when  a  bird  is  rooted  in  the  earth  as  surely 
as  a  tree  is?  Nay,  the  bird  is  only  the  topmost 
leaf  of  the  tree,  fluttering  in  the  high  air,  but 
attached  as  close  to  the  tree  as  any  other  leaf. 
Mr.  Einstein's  Theory  of  Relativity  does  not 
supersede  the  Newtonian  Law  of  Gravitation 
or  of  Inertia.  It  only  says,  "Bew;are!  The  Law 
of  Inertia  is  not  the  simple  ideal  proposition  you 
would  like  to  make  of  it.  It  is  a  vast  complexity. 
Gravitation  is  not  one  elemental  uncouth  force. 
It  is  a  strange,  infinitely  complex,  subtle  aggre- 
gate of  forces."  And  yet,  however  much  it  may 
waggle,  a  stone  does  fall  to  earth  if  you  drop  it. 
We  should  like,  vulgarly,  to  rejoice  and  say 
that  the  new  Theory  of  Relativity  releases  us 
from  the  old  obligation  of  centrality.  It  does 
no  such  thing.  It  only  makes  the  old  centrality 
much  more  strange,  subtle,  complex,  and  vital. 
It  only  robs  us  of  the  nice  old  ideal  simplicity. 
Which  ideal  simplicity  and  logicalness  has  be- 
come such  a  fish-bone  stuck  in  our  throats. 


COSMOLOGICAL  217 

The  universe  is  once  more  in  the  mental  melt- 
ing-pot And  you  can  melt  it  down  as  long  as 
you  like,  and  mutter  all  the  jargon  and  abraca- 
dabra, aldeboronti  fosco  fornio  of  science  that 
mental  monkey- tricks  can  teach  you,  you  won't 
get  anything  in  the  end  but  a  formula  and  a  lie. 
The  atom?  Why,  the  moment  you  discover  the 
atom  it  will  explode  under  your  nose.  The 
moment  you  discover  the  ether  it  will  evaporate. 
The  moment  you  get  down  to  the  real  basis  of 
anything,  it  will  dissolve  into  a  thousand  proble- 
matic constituents.  And  the  more  problems  you 
solve,  the  more  will  spring  up  with  their  fingers 
at  their  nose,  making  a  fool  of  you. 

There  is  only  one  clue  to  the  universe.  And 
that  is  the  individual  soul  within  the  individual 
being.  That  outer  universe  of  suns  and  moons 
and  atoms  is  a  secondary  affair.  It  is  the  death- 
result  of  living  individuals.  There  is  a  great 
polarity  in  life  itself.  Life  itself  is  dual.  And 
the  duality  is  life  and  death.  And  death  is  not 
just  shadow  or  mystery.  It  is  the  negative  reality 
of  life.  It  is  what  we  call  Matter  and  Force, 
among  other  things. 

Life  is  individual,  always  was  individual  and 
always  will  be.  Life  consists  of  living  indi- 
viduals, and  always  did  so  consist,  in  the  begin- 


2i8       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

ning  of  everything.  There  never  w^as  any  uni- 
verse, any  cosmos,  of  v^hich  the  first  reality  v^^as 
anything  but  living,  incorporate  individuals.  I 
don't  say  the  individuals  were  exactly  like  you 
and  me.    And  they  v^ere  never  v^ildly  different. 

And  therefore  it  is  time  for  the  idealist  and 
the  scientist — they  are  one  and  the  same,  really 
— to  stop  his  monkey-jargon  about  the  atom  and 
the  origin  of  life  and  the  mechanical  clue  to 
the  universe.  There  isn't  any  such  thing.  I 
might  as  w^ell  say:  ^^Then  they  took  the  cart,  and 
rubbed  it  all  over  with  grease.  Then  they 
sprayed  it  with  white  wine,  and  spun  round  the 
right  wheel  five  hundred  revolutions  to  the 
minute  and  the  left  wheel,  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, seven  hundred  and  seventy-seven  revolu- 
tions to  the  minute.  Then  a  burning  torch  was 
applied  to  each  axle.  And  lo,  the  footboard  of 
the  cart  began  to  swell,  and  suddenly  as  the  cart 
groaned  and  writhed,  the  horse  was  born,  and 
lay  panting  between  the  shafts."  The  whole 
scientific  theory  of  the  universe  is  not  worth  such 
a  tale :  that  the  cart  conceived  and  gave  birth  to 
the  horse. 

I  do  not  believe  one-fifth  of  what  science  can 
tell  me  about  the  sun.  I  do  not  believe  for  one 
second  that  the  moon  is  a  dead  world  spelched 


COSMOLOGICAL  219 

off  from  our  globe.  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
stars  came  flying  off  from  the  sun  like  drops  of 
water  when  you  spin  your  wet  hanky.  I  have 
believed  it  for  twenty  years,  because  it  seemed 
so  ideally  plausible.  Now  I  don't  accept  any 
ideal  plausibilities  at  all.  I  look  at  the  moon 
and  the  stars,  and  I  know  I  don't  believe  any- 
thing that  I  am  told  about  them.  Except  that  I 
like  their  names,  Aldebaran  and  Cassiopeia,  and 
so  on. 

I  have  tried,  and  even  brought  myself  to  be- 
lieve in  a  clue  to  the  outer  universe.  And  in 
the  process  I  have  swallowed  such  a  lot  of  jargon 
that  I  would  rather  listen  now  to  a  negro  witch- 
doctor than  to  Science.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
world  that  is  true  except  empiric  discoveries 
which  work  in  actual  appliances.  I  know  that 
the  sun  is  hot.  But  I  won't  be  told  that  the  sun 
is  a  ball  of  blazing  gas  which  spins  round  and 
fizzes.    No,  thank  you. 

At  length,  for  my  part,  I  know  that  life,  and 
life  only  is  the  clue  to  the  universe.  And  that 
the  living  individual  is  the  clue  to  life.  And 
that  it  always  was  so,  and  always  will  be  so. 

When  the  living  individual  dies,  then  is  the 
realm  of  death  established.  Then  you  get  Mat- 
ter and  Elements  and  atoms  and  forces  and  sun 


220       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

and  moon  and  earth  and  stars  and  so  forth.  In 
short,  the  outer  universe,  the  Cosmos.  The 
Cosmos  is  nothing  but  the  aggregate  of  the  dead 
bodies  and  dead  energies  of  bygone  individuals. 
The  dead  bodies  decompose  as  we  know  into 
earth,  air,  and  water,  heat  and  radiant  energy 
and  free  electricity  and  innumerable  other  sci- 
entific facts.  The  dead  souls  likewise  decom- 
pose— or  else  they  don't  decompose.  But  if  they 
do  decompose,  then  it  is  not  into  any  elements 
of  Matter  and  physical  energy.  They  decom- 
pose into  some  psychic  reality,  and  into  some 
potential  will.  They  reenter  into  the  living 
psyche  of  living  individuals.  The  living  soul 
partakes  of  the  dead  souls,  as  the  living  breast 
partakes  of  the  outer  air,  and  the  blood  partakes 
of  the  sun.  The  soul,  the  individuality,  never 
resolves  itself  through  death  into  physical  con- 
stituents. The  dead  soul  remains  always  soul, 
and  always  retains  its  individual  quality.  And 
it  does  not  disappear,  but  reenters  into  the  soul 
of  the  living,  of  some  living  individual  or  indi- 
viduals. And  there  it  continues  its  part  in  life, 
as  a  death-witness  and  a  life-agent.  But  it  does 
not,  ordinarily,  have  any  separate  existence 
there,  but  is  incorporate  in  the  living  individual 
soul.    But  in  some  extraordinary  cases,  the  dead 


COSMOLOGICAL  221 

soul  may  really  act  separately  in  a  living  indi- 
vidual. 

How  this  all  is,  and  what  are  the  laws  of  the 
relation  between  life  and  death,  the  living  and 
the  dead,  I  don't  know.  But  that  this  relation 
exists,  and  exists  in  a  manner  as  I  describe  it, 
for  my  own  part  I  know.  And  I  am  fully  aware 
that  once  we  direct  our  living  attention  this  way, 
instead  of  to  the  absurdity  of  the  atom,  then  we 
have  a  whole  living  universe  of  knowledge  be- 
fore us.  The  universe  of  life  and  death,  of 
which  we,  whose  business  it  is  to  live  and  to  die, 
know  nothing.  Whilst  concerning  the  universe 
of  Force  and  Matter  we  pile  up  theories  and 
make  staggering  and  disastrous  discoveries  of 
machinery  and  poison-gas,  all  of  which  we  were 
much  better  without. 

It  is  life  we  have  to  live  by,  not  machines  and 
ideals.  And  life  means  nothing  else,  even,  but 
the  spontaneous  living  soul  which  is  our  central 
reality.  The  spontaneous,  living,  individual 
.  soul,  this  is  the  clue,  and  the  only  clue.  All  the 
rest  is  derived. 

How  it  is  contrived  that  the  individual  soul 
in  the  living  sways  the  very  sun  in  its  centrality, 
I  do  not  know.  But  it  is  so.  It  is  the  peculiar 
dynamic  polarity  of  the  living  soul  in  every  weed 


222       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

or  bug  or  beast,  each  one  separately  and  indi- 
vidually polarized  with  the  great  returning 
pole  of  the  sun,  that  maintains  the  sun  alive. 
For  I  take  it  that  the  sun  is  the  great  sympathetic 
center  of  our  inanimate  universe.  I  take  it  that 
the  sun  breathes  in  the  effluence  of  all  that  fades 
and  dies.  Across  space  fly  the  innumerable  vibra- 
tions which  are  the  basis  of  all  matter.  They 
fly,  breathed  out  from  the  dying  and  the  dead, 
from  all  that  which  is  passing  away,  even  in  the 
living.  These  vibrations,  these  elements  pass 
away  across  space,  and  are  breathed  back  again. 
The  sun  itself  is  invisible  as  the  soul.  The  sun 
itself  is  the  soul  of  the  inanimate  universe,  the 
aggregate  clue  to  the  substantial  death,  if  we 
may  call  it  so.  The  sun  is  the  great  active  pole 
of  the  sympathetic  death-activity.  To  the  sun 
fly  the  vibrations  or  the  molecules  in  the  great 
sympathy-mode  of  death,  and  in  the  sun  they 
are  renewed,  they  turn  again  as  the  great  gift 
back  again  from  the  sympathetic  death-center 
towards  life,  towards  the  living.  But  it  is  not 
even  the  dead  which  really  sustain  the  sun.  It 
is  the  dynamic  relation  between  the  solar  plexus 
of  individuals  and  the  sun's  core,  a  perfect  cir- 
cuit. The  sun  is  materially  composed  of  all  the 
effluence  of  the  dead.     But  the  quick  of  the 


COSMOLOGICAL  223 

sun  IS  polarized  with  the  living,  the  sun's  quick 
is  polarized  in  dynamic  relation  with  the  quick 
of  life  in  all  living  things,  that  is,  with  the  solar 
plexus  in  mankind.  A  direct  dynamic  connec- 
tion between  my  solar  plexus  and  the  sun. 

Likewise,  as  the  sun  is  the  great  fiery,  vivify- 
ing pole  of  the  inanimate  universe,  the  moon  is 
the  other  pole,  cold  and  keen  and  vivifying,  cor- 
responding in  some  way  to  a  voluntary  pole.  We 
live  between  the  polarized  circuit  of  sun  and 
moon.  And  the  moon  is  polarized  with  the  lum- 
bar ganglion,  primarily,  in  man.  Sun  and  moon 
are  dynamically  polarized  to  our  actual  tissue, 
they  affect  this  tissue  all  the  time. 

The  moon  is,  as  it  were,  the  pole  of  our  par- 
ticular terrestrial  volition,  in  the  universe. 
What  holds  the  earth  swinging  in  space  is  first, 
the  great  dynamic  attraction  to  the  sun,  and  then 
counterposing  assertion  of  independence,  single- 
ness, which  is  polarized  in  the  moon.  The  moon 
is  the  clue  to  our  earth's  individual  identity,  in 
the  wide  universe. 

The  moon  is  an  immense  magnetic  center.  It 
is  quite  wrong  to  say  she  is  a  dead  snowy  world 
with  craters  and  so  on.  I  should  say  she  is  com- 
posed of  some  very  intense  element,  like  phos- 
phorus or  radium,  some  element  or  elements 


224       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

which  have  very  powerful  chemical  and  kinetic 
activity,  and  magnetic  activity,  affecting  us 
through  space. 

It  is  not  the  sun  which  we  see  in  heaven.  It 
is  the  rushing  thither  and  the  rushing  thence  of 
the  vibrations  expelled  by  death  from  the  body 
of  life,  and  returned  back  again  to  the  body  of 
life.  Possibly  even  a  dead  soul  makes  its  journey 
to  the  sun  and  back,  before  we  receive  it  again 
in  our  breast.  Just  as  the  breath  we  breathe  out 
flies  to  the  sun  and  back,  before  we  breathe  it 
in  again.  And  as  the  water  that  evaporates  rises 
right  to  the  sun,  and  returns  here.  What  we 
see  is  the  great  golden  rushing  thither,  from  the 
death  exhalation,  towards  the  sun,  as  a  great 
cloud  of  bees  flying  to  swarm  upon  the  invisible 
queen,  circling  round,  and  loosing  again.  This 
is  what  we  see  of  the  sun.  The  center  is  invisible 
for  ever. 

And  of  the  moon  the  same.  The  moon  has 
her  back  to  us  for  ever.  Not  her  face,  as  we  like 
to  think.  The  moon  also  pulls  the  water,  as  the 
sun  does.  But  not  in  evaporation.  The  moon 
pulls  by  the  magnetic  force  we  call  gravitation. 
Gravitation  not  being  quite  such  a  Newtonian 
simple  apple  as  we  are  accustomed  to  find  it,  we 
are  perhaps  farther  off  from  understanding  the 


COSMOLOGICAL  225 

tides  of  the  ocean  than  we  were  before  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  fell  to  Sir  Isaac's  head.  It  is  cer- 
tainly not  simple  little-things  tumble-towards- 
big-things  gravitation.  In  the  moon's  pull  there 
is  peculiar,  quite  special  force  exerted  over 
those  water-born  substances,  phosphorus,  salt, 
and  lime.  The  dynamic  energy  of  salt  water  is 
something  quite  different  from  that  of  fresh 
water.  And  it  is  this  dynamic  energy  which  the 
sea  gives  off,  and  which  connects  it  with  the 
moon.  And  the  moon  is  some  strange  coagula- 
tion of  substance  such  as  salt,  phosphorus,  soda. 
It  certainly  isn't  a  snowy  cold  world,  like  a 
world  of  our  own  gone  cold.  Nonsense.  It  is 
a  globe  of  dynamic  substance  like  radium  or 
phosphorus,  coagulated  upon  a  certain  vivid 
pole  of  energy,  which  pole  of  energy  is  directly 
polarized  with  our  earth,  in  opposition  with 
the  sun. 

The  moon  is  born  from  the  death  of  indi- 
viduals. All  things,  in  their  oneing,  their  unifi- 
cation into  the  pure,  universal  oneness,  evaporate 
and  fly  like  an  imitation  breath  towards  the  sun. 
Even  the  crumbling  rocks  breathe  themselves 
off  in  this  rocky  death,  to  the  sun  of  heaven, 
during  the  day. 

But  at  the  same  time,  during  the  night  they 


226       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

breathe  themselves  off  to  the  moon.  If  we  come 
to  think  of  it,  light  and  dark  are  a  question  both 
of  the  third  body,  the  intervening  body,  what 
we  will  call,  by  stretching  a  point,  the  indi- 
vidual. As  we  all  know,  apart  from  the  exist- 
ence of  molecules  of  individual  matter,  there  is 
neither  light  nor  dark.  A  universe  utterly  with- 
out matter,  we  don't  know  whether  it  is  light 
or  dark.  Even  the  pure  space  between  the  sun 
and  moon,  the  blue  space,  we  don't  know 
whether,  in  itself,  it  is  light  or  dark.  We  can 
say  it  is  light,  we  can  say  it  is  dark.  But  light 
and  dark  are  terms  which  apply  only  to  our- 
selves, the  third,  the  intermediate,  the  substan- 
tial, the  individual. 

If  we  come  to  think  of  it,  light  and  dark  only 
mean  whether  we  have  our  face  or  our  back 
towards  the  sun.  If  we  have  our  face  to  the 
sun,  then  we  establish  the  circuit  of  cosmic  or 
universal  or  material  or  infinite  sympathy. 
These  four  adjectives,  cosmic,  universal,  ma- 
terial, and  infinite  are  almost  interchangeable, 
and  apply,  as  we  see,  to  that  realm  of  the  non- 
individual  existence  which  we  call  the  realm  of 
the  substantial  death.  It  is  the  universe  which 
has  resulted  from  the  death  of  individuals.  And 
to  this  universe  alone  belongs  the  quality  of  in- 


COSMOLOGICAL  227 

finity:  to  the  universe  of  death.  Living  indi- 
viduals have  no  infinity  save  in  this  relation  to 
the  total  death-substance  and  death-being,  the 
$ummed-up  cosmos. 

Light  and  dark,  these  great  wonders,  are  rela- 
tive to  us  alone.  These  are  two  vast  poles  of 
th^  cosmic  energy  and  of  material  existence. 
These  are  the  vast  poles  of  cosmic  sympathy, 
which  we  call  the  sun,  and  the  other  white  pole 
of  cosmic  volition,  which  we  call  the  moon.  To 
the  sun  belong  the  great  forces  of  heat  and 
radiant  energy,  to  the  moon  belong  the  great 
forces  of  magnetism  and  electricity,  radium- 
energy,  and  so  on.  The  sun  is  not,  in  any  sense, 
a  material  body.  It  is  an  invariable  intense  pole 
of  cosmic  energy,  and  what  we  see  are  the  par- 
ticles of  our  terrestrial  decomposition  flying 
thither  and  returning,  as  fine  grains  of  iron 
would  fly  to  an  intense  magnet,  or  better,  as  the 
draught  in  a  room  veers  towards  the  fire,  at- 
tracted infallibly,  as  a  moth  towards  a  candle. 
The  moth  is  drawn  to  the  candle  as  the  draught 
is  drawn  to  the  fire,  in  the  absolute  spell  of  the 
material  polarity  of  fire.  And  air  escapes  again, 
hot  and  different,  from  the  fire.     So  is  the  sun. 

Fire,  we  say,  is  combustion.  It  is  marvelous 
how    science    proceeds     like    witchcraft    and 


228       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

alchemy,  by  means  of  an  abracadabra  which  has 
no  earthly  sense.  Pray,  what  is  combustion? 
You  can  try  and  answer  scientifically,  till  you 
are  black  in  the  face.  All  you  can  say  is  that 
it  is  that  which  happens  when  matter  is  raised 
to  a  certain  temperature — and  so  forth  and  so 
forth.  You  might  as  well  say,  a  word  is  that 
which  happens  when  I  open  my  mouth  and 
squeeze  my  larynx  and  make  various  tricks  with 
my  throat  muscles.  All  these  explanations  are 
so  senseless.  They  describe  the  apparatus,  and 
think  they  have  described  the  event. 

Fire  may  be  accompanied  by  combustion,  but 
combustion  is  not  necessarily  accompanied  by 
fire.  All  A  is  B,  but  all  B  is  not  A.  And  there- 
fore fire,  no  matter  how  you  jiggle,  is  not  identi- 
cal with  combustion.  Fire.  FIRE.  I  insist 
on  the  absolute  word.  You  may  say  that  fire  is 
a  sum  of  various  phenomena.  I  say  it  isn't. 
You  might  as  well  tell  me  a  fly  is  a  sum  of  wings 
and  six  legs  and  two  bulging  eyes.  It  is  the  fly 
which  has  the  wings  and  legs,  and  not  the  legs 
and  wings  which  somehow  nab  the  fly  into  the 
middle  of  themselves.  A  fly  is  not  a  sum  of 
various  things.  A  fly  is  a  fly,  and  the  items  of 
the  sum  are  still  fly. 

So  with  fire.     Fire  is  an  absolute  unity  in  it- 


COSMOLOGICAL  229 

self.  It  is  a  dynamic  polar  principle.  Establish 
a  certain  polarity  between  the  moon-principle 
and  the  sun-principle,  between  the  positive 
and  negative,  or  sympathetic  and  volitional 
dynamism  in  any  piece  of  matter,  and  you  have 
fire,  you  have  the  sun-phenomenon.  It  is  the 
sudden  flare  into  the  one  mode,  the  sun  mode, 
the  material  sympathetic  mode.  Correspond- 
ingly, establish  an  opposite  polarity  between  the 
sun-principle  and  the  water-principle,  and  you 
have  decomposition  into  water,  or  towards 
watery  dissolution. 

There  are  two  sheer  dynamic  principles  in  our 
universe,  the  sun-principle  and  the  moon-prin- 
ciple. And  these  principles  are  known  to  us  in 
immediate  contact  as  fire  and  water.  The  sun 
is  not  fire.  But  the  principle  of  fire  is  the  sun- 
principle.  That  is,  fire  is  the  sudden  swoop 
towards  the  sun,  of  matter  which  is  suddenly 
sun-polarized.  Fire  is  the  sudden  sun-assertion, 
the  release  towards  the  one  pole  only.  It  is  the 
sudden  revelation  of  the  cosmic  One  Polarity, 
One  Identity. 

But  there  is  another  pole.  There  is  the  moon. 
And  there  is  another  absolute  and  visible  prin- 
ciple, the  principle  of  water.    The  moon  is  not 


230       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

water.  But  it  is  the  soul  of  water,  the  invisible 
clue  to  all  the  waters. 

So  that  we  begin  to  realize  our  visible  uni- 
verse as  a  vast  dual  polarity  between  sun  and 
moon.  Two  vast  poles  in  space,  invisible  in 
themselves,  but  visible  owing  to  the  circuit 
which  swoops  between  them,  round  them,  the 
circuit  of  the  universe,  established  at  the  cosmic 
poles  of  the  sun  and  moon.  This  then  is  the  in- 
finite, the  positive  infinite  of  the  positive  pole,  the 
sun-pole,  negative  infinite  of  the  negative  pole, 
the  moon-pole.  And  between  the  two  infinites 
all  existence  takes  place. 

But  wait.  Existence  is  truly  a  matter  of  prop- 
agation between  the  two  infinites.  But  it  needs 
a  third  presence.  Sun-principle  and  moon- 
principle,  embracing  through  the  aeons,  could 
never  by  themselves  propagate  one  molecule  of 
matter.  The  hailstone  needs  a  grain  of  dust  for 
its  core.  So  does  the  universe.  Midway  be- 
tween the  two  cosmic  infinites  lies  the  third, 
which  is  more  than  infinite.  This  is  the  Holy 
Ghost  Life,  individual  life. 

It  is  so  easy  to  imagine  that  between  them,  the 
two  infinites  of  the  cosmos  propagated  life.  But 
one  single  moment  of  pause  and  silence,  one 
single  moment  of  gathering  the  whole  soul  into 


COSMOLOGICAL  231 

knowledge,  will  tell  us  that  it  is  a  falsity.  It  was 
the  living  individual  soul  which,  dying,  flung 
into  space  the  two  wings  of  the  infinite,  the  two 
poles  of  the  sun  and  the  moon.  The  sun  and 
the  moon  are  the  two  eternal  death-results  of  the 
death  of  individuals.  Matter,  all  matter,  is  the 
Life-born.  And  what  we  know  as  inert  matter, 
this  is  only  the  result  of  death  in  individuals,  it 
is  the  dead  bodies  of  individuals  decomposed 
and  resmelted  between  the  hammer  and  anvil, 
fire  and  sand  of  the  sun  and  the  moon.  When 
time  began,  the  first  individual  died,  the  poles 
of  the  sun  and  moon  were  flung  into  space,  and 
between  the  two,  in  a  strange  chaos  and  battle, 
the  dead  body  was  torn  and  melted  and  smelted, 
and  rolled  beneath  the  feet  of  the  living.  So 
the  world  was  formed,  always  under  the  feet  of 
the  living. 

And  so  we  have  a  clue  to  gravitation.  We, 
mankind,  are  all  one  family.  In  our  individual 
bodies  burns  the  positive  quick  of  all  things. 
But  beneath  our  feet,  in  our  own  earth,  lies  the 
intense  center  of  our  human,  individual  death, 
our  grave.  The  earth  has  one  center,  to  which 
we  are  all  polarized.  The  circuit  of  our  life  is 
balanced  on  the  living  soul  within  us,  as  the 
positive  center,  and  on  the  earth's  dark  center. 


232       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

the  center  of  our  abiding  and  eternal  and  sub- 
stantial death,  our  great  negative  center,  away 
below.  This  is  the  circuit  of  our  immediate 
individual  existence.  We  stand  upon  our  own 
grave,  with  our  death  fire,  the  sun,  on  our  right 
hand,  and  our  death-damp,  the  moon,  on  our  left. 

The  earth's  center  is  no  accident.  It  is  the 
great  individual  pole  of  us  who  die.  It  is  the 
center  of  the  first  dead  body.  It  is  the  first  germ- 
cell  of  death,  which  germ-cell  threw  out  the 
great  nuclei  of  the  sun  and  the  moon.  To  this 
center  of  our  earth  we,  as  humans,  are  eternally 
polarized,  as  are  our  trees.  Inevitably,  we  fall 
to  earth.  And  the  clue  of  us  sinks  to  the  earth's 
center,  the  clue  of  our  death,  of  our  weight. 
And  the  earth  flings  us  out  as  wings  to  the  sun 
and  moon:  or  as  the  death-germ  dividing  into 
two  nuclei.  So  from  the  earth  our  radiance  is 
flung  to  the  sun,  our  marsh-fire  to  the  moon, 
when  we  die. 

We  fall  into  the  earth.  But  our  rising  was 
not  from  the  earth.  We  rose  from  the  earthless 
quick,  the  unfading  life.  And  earth,  sun,  and 
moon  are  born  only  of  our  death.  But  it  is  only 
their  polarized  dynamic  connection  with  us  who 
live  which  sustains  them  all  in  their  place  and 


COSMOLOGICAL  233 

maintains  them  all  in  their  own  activities.  The 
inanimate  universe  rests  absolutely  on  the  life- 
circuit  of  living  creatures,  is  built  upon  the  arch 
which  spans  the  duality  of  living  beings. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

SLEEP   AND  DREAMS 

THIS  is  going  rather  far,  for  a  book — nay, 
a  booklet — on  the  child  consciousness. 
But  it  can't  be  helped.  Child-consciousness  it 
is.  And  we  have  to  roll  away  the  stone  of  a  sci- 
entific cosmos  from  the  tomb-mouth  of  that 
imprisoned  consciousness. 

Now,  dear  reader,  let  us  see  where  we  are. 
First  of  all,  we  are  ourselves — ^which  is  the  re- 
frain of  all  my  chants.  We  are  ourselves.  We 
are  living  individuals.  And  as  living  indi- 
viduals we  are  the  one,  pure  clue  to  our  own 
cosmos.  To  which  cosmos  living  individuals 
have  always  been  the  clue,  since  time  began,  and 
will  always  be  the  clue,  while  time  lasts. 

I  know  it  is  not  so  fireworky  as  the  sudden 
evolving  of  life,  somewhere,  somewhen  and 
somehow,  out  of  force  and  matter  with  a  pop. 
But  that  pop  never  popped,  dear  reader.  The 
boot  was  on  the  other  leg.    And  I  wish  I  could 

234 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  235 

mix  a  few  more  metaphors,  like  pops  and  legs 
and  boots,  just  to  annoy  you. 

Life  never  evolved,  or  evoluted,  out  of  force 
and  matter,  dear  reader.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  evolution,  anyhow.  There  is  only  develop- 
ment. Man  was  man  in  the  very  first  plasm- 
speck  which  was  his  own  individual  origin,  and 
is  still  his  own  individual  origin.  As  for  the 
origin,  I  don't  know  much  about  it.  I  only 
know  there  is  but  one  origin,  and  that  is  the  in- 
dividual soul.  The  individual  soul  originated 
everything,  and  has  itself  no  origin.  So  that 
time  is  a  matter  of  living  experience,  nothing 
else,  and  eternity  is  just  a  mental  trick.  Of 
course  every  living  speck,  amoeba  or  newt,  has 
its  own  individual  soul. 

And  we  sit  on  our  own  globe,  dear  reader, 
here  individually  located.  Our  own  individual 
being  Is  our  own  single  reality.  But  the  single 
reality  of  the  individual  being  is  dynamically 
and  directly  polarized  to  the  earth's  center, 
which  is  the  aggregate  negative  center  of  all 
terrestrial  existence.  In  short,  the  center  which 
in  life  we  thrust  away  from,  and  towards  which 
we  fall,  in  death.  For,  our  individual  exist- 
ence being  positive,  we  must  have  a  negative 
pole  to  thrust  away  from.  And  when  our  posi- 
tive individual  existence  breaks,  and  we  fall  into 


236       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

death,  our  wonderful  individual  gravitation- 
center  succumbs  to  the  earth's  gravitation- 
center. 

So  there  we  are,  individuals,  single,  life-born, 
life-living,  yet  all  the  while  poised  and  polarized 
to  the  aggregate  center  of  our  substantial  death, 
our  earth's  quick,  powerful  center-clue. 

There  may  be  other  individuals,  alive,  and 
having  other  worlds  under  their  feet,  polarized 
to  their  own  globe's  center.  But  the  very  sacred- 
ness  of  my  own  individuality  prevents  my  pro- 
nouncing about  them,  lest  I,  in  attributing 
qualities  to  them,  transgress  against  the  pure  in- 
dividuality which  is  theirs,  beyond  me. 

If,  however,  there  be  truly  other  people,  with 
their  own  world  under  their  feet,  then  I  think  it 
is  fair  to  say  that  we  all  have  our  infinite  identity 
in  the  sun.  That  in  the  rush  and  swirl  of  death 
we  pass  through  fiery  ways  to  the  same  sun.  And 
from  the  sun,  can  the  spores  of  souls  pass  to  the 
various  worlds?  And  to  the  worlds  of  the  cos- 
mos seed  across  space,  through  the  wild  beams 
of  the  sun?  Is  there  seed  of  Mars  in  my  veins? 
And  is  astrology  not  altogether  nonsense? 

But  if  the  sun  is  the  center  of  our  infinite  one- 
ing  in  death  with  all  the  other  after-death  souls 
of  the  cosmos :  and  in  that  great  central  station 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  237 

of  travel,  the  sun,  we  meet  and  mingle  and 
change  trains  for  the  stars:  then  ought  we  to 
assume  that  the  moon  is  likewise  a  meeting-place 
of  dead  souls?  The  moon  surely  is  a  meeting- 
place  of  cold,  dead,  angry  souls.  But  from  our 
own  globe  only. 

The  moon  is  the  center  of  our  terrestrial  indi- 
viduality in  the  cosmos.  She  is  the  declaration 
of  our  existence  in  separateness.  Save  for  the 
intense  white  recoil  of  the  moon,  the  earth 
would  stagger  towards  the  sun.  The  moon  holds 
us  to  our  own  cosmic  individuality,  as  a  world 
individual  in  space.  She  is  the  fierce  center  of  re- 
traction, of  frictional  withdrawal  into  separate- 
ness. She  it  is  who  sullenly  stands  with  her  back 
to  us,  and  refuses  to  meet  and  mingle.  She  it  is 
who  burns  white  with  the  intense  friction  of  her 
withdrawal  into  separation,  that  cold,  proud 
white  fire  of  furious,  almost  malignant  apart- 
ness, the  struggle  into  fierce,  frictional  separa- 
tion. Her  white  fire  is  the  frictional  fire  of  the 
last  strange,  intense  watery  matter,  as  this  mat- 
ter fights  its  way  out  of  combination  and  out  of 
combustion  with  the  sun-stuff.  To  the  pure 
polarity  of  the  moon  fly  the  essential  waters  of 
our  universe.     Which  essential  waters,  at  the 


238       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

moon's  clue,  are  only  an  intense  invisible  energy, 
a  polarity  of  the  moon. 

There  are  only  three  great  energies  in  the  uni- 
versal life,  vs^hich  is  always  individual  and 
which  yet  sways  all  the  physical  forces  as  well 
as  the  vital  energy;  and  then  the  two  great 
dynamisms  of  the  sun  and  the  moon.  To  the 
dynamism  of  the  sun  belong  heat,  expansion- 
force,  and  all  that  range.  To  the  dynamism  of 
the  moon  the  essential  watery  forces:  not  just 
gravitation,  but  electricity,  magnetism,  radium- 
energy,  and  so  on. 

The  moon  likewise  is  the  pole  of  our  night 
activities,  as  the  sun  is  the  pole  of  our  day  activi- 
ties. Remember  that  the  sun  and  moon  are  but 
great  self-abandons  which  individual  life  has 
thrown  out,  to  the  right  hand  and  to  the  left. 
When  individual  life  dies,  it  flings  itself  on  the 
right  hand  to  the  sun,  on  the  left  hand  to  the 
moon,  in  the  dual  polarity,  and  sinks  to  earth. 
When  any  man  dies,  his  soul  divides  in  death; 
as  in  life,  in  the  first  germ,  it  was  united  from 
two  germs.  It  divides  into  two  dark  germs, 
flung  asunder :  the  sun-germ  and  the  moon-germ. 
Then  the  material  body  sinks  to  earth.  And  so 
we  have  the  cosmic  universe  such  as  we  know  it. 

What  is  the  exact  relationship  between  us  and 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  239 

the  death-realm  of  the  afterwards  we  shall  never 
know.  But  this  relation  is  none  the  less  active 
every  moment  of  our  lives.  There  is  a  pure 
polarity  between  life  and  death,  between  the 
living  and  the  dead,  between  each  living  indi- 
vidual and  the  outer  cosmos.  Between  each  liv- 
ing individual  and  the  earth's  center  passes  a 
never-ceasing  circuit  of  magnetism.  It  is  a  cir- 
cuit which  in  man  travels  up  the  right  side,  and 
down  the  left  side  of  the  body,  to  the  earth's 
center.  It  never  ceases.  But  while  we  are 
awake  it  is  entirely  under  the  control  and  spell 
of  the  total  consciousness,  the  individual  con- 
sciousness, the  soul,  or  self.  When  we  sleep,  how- 
ever, then  this  individual  consciousness  of  the 
soul  is  suspended  for  the  time,  and  we  lie  com- 
pletely within  the  circuit  of  the  earth's  magnet- 
ism, or  gravitation,  or  both:  the  circuit  of  the 
earth's  centrality.  It  is  this  circuit  which  is  busy 
in  all  our  tissue  removing  or  arranging  the  dead 
body  of  our  past  day.  For  each  time  we  lie  down 
to  sleep  we  have  within  us  a  body  of  death  which 
dies  with  the  day  that  is  spent.  And  this  body 
of  death  is  removed  or  laid  in  line  by  the  activi- 
ties of  the  earth-circuit,  the  great  active  death- 
circuit,  while  we  sleep. 

As  we  sleep  the  current  sweeps  its  own  way 


240       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

through  us,  as  the  streets  of  a  city  are  swept  and 
flushed  at  night.  It  sweeps  through  our  nerves 
and  our  blood,  sweeping  away  the  ash  of  our 
day's  spent  consciousness  towards  one  form  or 
other  of  excretion.  This  earth-current  actively 
sweeping  through  us  is  really  the  death-activity 
busy  in  the  service  of  life.  It  behooves  us  to  know 
nothing  of  it.  And  as  it  sweeps  it  stimulates  in 
the  primary  centers  of  consciousness  vibrations 
which  flash  images  upon  the  mind.  Usually,  in 
deep  sleep,  these  images  pass  unrecorded;  but 
as  we  pass  towards  the  twilight  of  dawn  and 
wakefulness,  we  begin  to  retain  some  impres- 
sion, some  record  of  the  dream-images.  Usually 
also  the  images  that  are  accidentally  swept  into 
the  mind  in  sleep  are  as  disconnected  and  as  un- 
meaning as  the  pieces  of  paper  which  the  street 
cleaners  sweep  into  a  bin  from  the  city  gutters 
at  night.  We  should  not  think  of  taking  all 
these  papers,  piecing  them  together,  and  making 
a  marvelous  book  of  them,  prophetic  of  the 
future  and  pregnant  with  the  past.  We  should 
not  do  so,  although  every  rag  of  printed  paper 
swept  from  the  gutter  would  have  some  connec- 
tion with  the  past  day's  event.  But  its  signifi- 
cance, the  significance  of  the  words  printed  upon 
it  is  so  small,  that  we  relegate  it  into  the  limbo 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  241 

of  the  accidental  and  meaningless.  There  is  no 
vital  connection  between  the  many  torn  bits  of 
paper — only  an  accidental  connection.  Each 
bit  of  paper  has  reference  to  some  actual  event: 
a  bus-ticket,  an  envelope,  a  tract,  a  pastry-shop 
bag,  a  newspaper,  a  hand-bill.  But  take  them 
all  together,  bus-ticket,  torn  envelope,  tract, 
paper-bag,  piece  of  newspaper  and  hand-bill, 
and  they  have  no  individual  sequence,  they  be- 
long more  to  the  mechanical  arrangements  than 
to  the  vital  consequence  of  our  existence.  And 
the  same  with  most  dreams.  They  are  the  hetero- 
geneous odds  and  ends  of  images  swept  together 
accidentally  by  the  besom  of  the  night-current, 
and  it  is  beneath  our  dignity  to  attach  any  real 
importance  to  them.  It  is  always  beneath  our 
dignity  to  go  degrading  the  integrity  of  the  indi- 
vidual soul  by  cringing  and  scraping  among  the 
rag-tag  of  accident  and  of  the  inferior,  mechanic 
coincidence  and  automatic  event.  Only  those 
events  are  significant  which  derive  from  or  ap- 
ply to  the  soul  in  its  full  integrity.  To  go  kow- 
towing before  the  facts  of  change,  as  gamblers 
and  fortune-readers  and  fatalists  do,  is  merely  a 
perverting  of  the  souPs  proud  integral  priority, 
a  rearing  up  of  idiotic  idols  and  fetishes. 

Most  dreams  are  purely  insignificant,  and  it 


242       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

is  the  sign  of  a  weak  and  paltry  nature  to  pay  any 
attention  to  them  whatever.  Only  occasionally 
they  matter.  And  this  is  only  when  something 
threatens  us  from  the  outer  mechanical,  or  acci- 
dental death-V70v\A.  When  anything  threatens 
us  from  the  world  of  death,  then  a  dream  may 
become  so  vivid  that  it  arouses  the  actual  soul. 
And  when  a  dream  is  so  intense  that  it  arouses 
the  soul — then  we  must  attend  to  it. 

But  we  may  have  the  most  appalling  night- 
mare beca.use  we  eat  pancakes  for  supper.  Here 
again,  we  are  threatened  with  an  arrest  of  the 
mechanical  flow  of  the  system.  This  arrest  be- 
comes so  serious  that  it  affects  the  great  organs 
of  the  heart  and  lungs,  and  these  organs  affect 
the  primary  conscious-centers. 

Now  we  shall  see  that  this  is  the  direct  reverse 
of  real  living  consciousness.  In  living  con- 
sciousness the  primary  affective  centers  control 
the  great  organs.  But  when  sleep  is  on  us,  the 
reverse  takes  place.  The  great  organs,  being 
obstructed  in  their  spontaneous-automatism,  at 
last  with  violence  arouse  the  active  conscious- 
centers.    And  these  flash  images  to  the  brain. 

These  nightmare  images  are  very  frequently 
purely  mechanical :  as  of  falling  terribly  down- 
wards, or  being  enclosed  in  vaults.     And  such 


SLEEP    AND    DREAMS  243 

images  are  pure  physical  transcripts.  The  im- 
age of  falling,  of  flying,  of  trying  to  run  and 
not  being  able  to  lift  the  feet,  of  having  to  creep 
through  terribly  small  passages,  these  are  direct 
transcripts  from  the  physical  phenomena  of  cir- 
culation and  digestion.  It  is  the  directly  tran- 
scribed image  of  the  heart  which,  impeded  in 
its  action  by  the  gases  of  indigestion,  is  switched 
out  of  its  established  circuit  of  earth-polarity, 
and  is  as  if  suspended  over  a  void,  or  plunging 
into  a  void:  step  by  step,  falling  downstairs, 
maybe,  according  to  the  strangulation  of  the 
heart  beats.  The  same  paralytic  inability  to  lift 
the  feet  when  one  needs  to  run,  in  a  dream,  comes 
directly  from  the  same  impeded  action  of  the 
heart,  which  is  thrown  off  its  balance  by  some 
material  obstruction.  Now  the  heart  swings 
left  and  right  in  the  pure  circuit  of  the  earth's 
polarity.  Hinder  this  swing,  force  the  heart 
over  to  the  left,  by  inflation  of  gas  from  the 
stomach  or  by  dead  pressure  upon  the  blood  and 
nerves  from  any  obstruction,  and  you  get  the 
sensation  of  being  unable  to  lift  the  feet  from 
earth:  a  gasping  sensation.  Or  force  the  heart 
to  overbalance  towards  the  right,  and  you  get 
the  sensation  of  flying  or  of  falling.  The  heart 
telegraphs  its  distress  to  the  mind,  and  wakes 


244       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

US.  The  wakeful  soul  at  once  begins  to  deal 
with  the  obstruction,  which  was  too  much  for 
the  mechanical  night-circuits.  The  same  holds 
good  of  dreams  of  imprisonment,  or  of  creeping 
through  narrow  passages.  They  are  direct 
transfers  from  the  squeezing  of  the  blood 
through  constricted  arteries  or  heart  chambers. 

Most  dreams  are  stimulated  from  the  blood 
into  the  nerves  and  the  nerve-centers.  And  the 
heart  is  the  transmission  station.  For  the  blood 
has  a  unity  and  a  consciousness  of  its  own.  It 
has  a  deeper,  elemental  consciousness  of  the  me- 
chanical or  material  world.  In  the  blood  we 
have  the  body  of  our  most  elemental  conscious- 
ness, our  almost  material  consciousness.  And 
during  sleep  this  material  consciousness  trans- 
fers itself  into  the  nerves  and  to  the  brain.  The 
transfer  in  wakefulness  results  in  a  feeling  of 
pain  or  discomfort — as  when  we  have  indiges- 
tion, which  is  pure  blood-discomfort.  But  in 
sleep  the  transfer  is  made  through  the  dream- 
images  which  are  mechanical  phenomena  like 
mirages. 

Nightmares  which  have  purely  mechanical 
images  may  terrify  us,  give  us  a  great  shock,  but 
the  shock  does  not  enter  our  souls.  We  are  sur- 
prised, in  the  morning,  to  find  that  the  bristling 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  245 

horror  of  the  night  seems  now  just  nothing — 
dwindled  to  nothing.  And  this  is  because  what 
was  a  purely  material  obstruction  in  the  physi- 
cal flow,  temporary  only,  is  indeed  a  nothingness 
to  the  living,  integral  soul.  We  are  subject  to 
such  accidents — if  we  will  eat  pancakes  for  sup- 
per.   And  that  is  the  end  of  it. 

But  there  are  other  dreams  which  linger  and 
haunt  the  soul.  These  are  true  soul-dreams.  As 
we  know,  life  consists  of  reactions  and  interre- 
lations from  the  great' centers  of  primary  con- 
sciousness. I  may  start  a  chain  of  connection 
from  one  center,  which  inevitably  stimulates 
into  activity  the  corresponding  center.  For 
example,  I  may  develop  a  profound  and  pas- 
sional love  for  my  mother,  in  my  days  of  adoles- 
cence. This  starts,  willy-nilly,  the  whole  ac- 
tivity of  adult  love  at  the  lower  centers.  But 
admission  is  made  only  of  the  upper,  spiritual 
love,  the  love  dynamically  polarized  at  the  upper 
centers.  Nevertheless,  whether  the  admission 
is  made  or  not,  once  establish  the  circuit  in  the 
upper  or  spiritual  centers  of  adult  love,  and  you 
will  get  a  corresponding  activity  in  the  lower, 
passional  centers  of  adult  love. 

The  activity  at  the  lower  center,  however,  is 
denied  in  the  daytime.     There  is  a  repression. 


246       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

Then  the  friction  of  the  night-flow  liberates  the 
repressed  psychic  activity  explosively.  And 
then  the  image  of  the  mother  figures  in  passion- 
ate, disturbing,  soul-rending  dreams. 

The  Freudians  point  to  this  as  evidence  of  a 
repressed  incest  desire.  The  Freudians  are  too 
simple.  It  is  always  wrong  to  accept  a  dream- 
meaning  at  its  face  value.  Sleep  is  the  time 
when  we  are  given  over  to  the  automatic 
processes  of  the  inanimate  universe.  Let  us  not 
forget  this.  Dreams  are  automatic  in  their 
nature.  The  psyche  possesses  remarkably  few 
dynamic  images.  In  the  case  of  the  boy  who 
dreams  of  his  mother,  we  have  the  aroused  but 
unattached  sex  plunging  in  sleep,  causing  a  sort 
of  obstruction.  We  have  the  image  of  the 
mother,  the  dynamic  emotional  image.  And  the 
automatism  of  the  dream-process  immediately 
unites  the  sex-sensation  to  the  great  stock  image, 
and  produces  an  incest  dream.  But  does  this 
prove  a  repressed  incest  desire?  On  the  con- 
trary. 

The  truth  is,  every  man  has,  the  moment  he 
awakes,  a  hatred  of  his  dream,  and  a  great  de- 
sire to  be  free  of  the  dream,  free  of  the  persist- 
ent mother-image  or  sister-image  of  the  dream. 
It  is  a  ghoul,  it  haunts  his  dreams,  this  image, 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  247 

with  its  hateful  conclusions.  And  yet  he  can- 
not get  free.  As  long  as  a  man  lives  he  may,  in 
his  dreams  of  passion  or  conflict,  be  haunted  by 
the  mother-image  or  sister-image,  even  when  he 
knows  that  the  cause  of  the  disturbing  dream  is 
the  wife.  But  even  though  the  actual  subject  of 
the  dream  is  the  wife,  still,  over  and  over  again, 
for  years,  the  dream-process  will  persist  in  sub- 
stituting the  mother-image.  It  haunts  and  terri- 
fies a  man. 

Why  does  the  dream-process  act  so?  For  two 
reasons.  First,  the  reason  of  simple  automatic 
continuance.  The  mother-image  was  the  first 
great  emotional  image  to  be  introduced  in  the 
psyche.  The  dream-process  mechanically  re- 
produces its  stock  image  the  moment  the  intense 
sympathy-emotion  is  aroused.  Again,  the 
mother-image  refers  only  to  the  upper  plane. 
But  the  dream-process  is  mechanical  in  its  logic. 
Because  the  mother-image  refers  to  the  great 
dynamic  stress  of  the  upper  plane,  therefore  it 
refers  to  the  great  dynamic  stress  of  the  lower. 
This  Is  a  piece  of  sheer  automatic  logic.  The 
living  soul  is  not  automatic,  and  automatic  logic 
does  not  apply  to  it. 

But  for  our  second  reason  for  the  image.  In 
becoming  the  object  of  great  emotional  stress 


248       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

for  her  son,  the  mother  also  becomes  an  object 
of  poignancy,  of  anguish,  of  arrest,  to  her  son. 
She  arrests  him  from  finding  his  proper  fulfill- 
ment on  the  sensual  plane.  Now  it  is  almost 
always  the  object  of  arrest  which  becomes  im- 
pressed, as  it  were,  upon  the  psyche.  A  man 
very  rarely  has  an  image  of  a  person  with  whom 
he  is  livingly,  vitally  connected.  He  only  has 
dream-images  of  the  persons  who,  in  some  way, 
oppose  his  life-flow  and  his  soul's  freedom,  and 
so  become  impressed  upon  his  plasm  as  objects 
of  resistance.  Once  a  man  is  dynamically  caught 
on  the  upper  plane  by  mother  or  sister,  then  the 
dream-image  of  mother  or  sister  will  persist 
until  the  dynamic  rapport  between  himself  and 
his  mother  or  sister  is  finally  broken.  And  the 
dream-image  from  the  upper  plane  will  be  auto- 
matically applied  to  the  disturbance  of  the 
lower  plane. 

Because — and  this  is  very  important — the 
dream-process  loves  its  own  automatism.  It 
would  force  everything  to  an  automatic-logical 
conclusion  in  the  psyche.  But  the  living,  wake- 
ful psyche  is  so  flexible  and  sensitive,  it  has  a 
horror  of  automatism.  While  the  soul  really 
lives,  its  deepest  dread  is  perhaps  the  dread  of 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  249 

automatism.  For  automatism  in  life  is  a  fore- 
stalling of  the  death  process. 

The  living  soul  has  its  great  fear.  The  living 
soul  fears  the  automatically  logical  conclusion 
of  incest.  Hence  the  sleep-process  invariably 
draws  this  conclusion.  The  dream-process, 
fiendishly,  plays  a  triumph  of  automatism  over 
us.  But  the  dream-conclusion  is  almost  invari- 
ably just  the  reverse  of  the  soul's  desire,  in  any 
distress-dream.  Popular  dream-telling  under- 
stood this,  and  pronounced  that  you  must  read 
dreams  backwards.  Dream  of  a  wedding,  and 
it  means  a  funeral.  Wish  your  friend  well,  and 
fear  his  death,  and  you  will  dream  of  his 
funeral.  Every  desire  has  its  corresponding  fear 
that  the  desire  shall  not  be  fulfilled.  It  is  fear 
which  forms  an  arrest-point  in  the  psyche,  hence 
an  image.  So  the  dream  automatically  produces 
the  fear-image  as  the  desire-image.  If  you 
secretly  wished  your  enemy  dead,  and  feared  he 
might  flourish,  the  dream  would  present  you 
with  his  wedding. 

Of  course  this  rule  of  inversion  is  too  simple 
to  hold  good  in  all  cases.  Yet  it  is  one  of  the 
most  general  rules  for  dreams,  and  applies  most 
often  to  desire-and-fear  dreams  of  a  psychic 
nature. 


250       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

So  that  an  incest-dream  would  not  prove  an 
incest-desire  in  the  living  psyche.  Rather  the 
contrary,  a  living  fear  of  the  automatic  conclu- 
sion :  the  soul's  just  dread  of  automatism.  And 
though  this  may  sound  like  casuistry,  I  believe 
it  does  explain  a  good  deal  of  the  dream-trick. — 
That  which  is  lovely  to  the  automatic  process  is 
hateful  to  the  spontaneous  soul.  The  wakeful 
living  soul  fears  automatism  as  it  fears  death: 
death  being  automatic. 

It  seems  to  me  these  are  the  first  two  dream- 
principles,  and  the  two  most  important:  the 
principle  of  automatism  and  the  principle  of  in- 
version. They  will  not  resolve  everything  for 
us,  but  they  will  help  a  great  deal.  We  have  to 
be  very  wary  of  giving  way  to  dreams.  It  is 
really  a  sin  against  ourselves  to  prostitute  the 
living  spontaneous  soul  to  the  tyranny  of  dreams, 
or  of  chance,  or  fortune  or  luck,  or  any  of  the 
processes  of  the  automatic  sphere. 

Then  consider  other  dynamic  dreams.  First, 
the  dream-image  generally.  Any  significant 
dream-image  is  usually  an  image  or  a  symbol 
of  some  arrest  or  scotch  in  the  living  spontaneous 
psyche.  There  is  another  principle.  But  if  the 
image  is  a  symbol,  then  the  only  safe  way  to  ex- 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  251 

plain  the  symbol  is  to  proceed  from  the  quality 
of  emotion  connected  with  the  symbol. 

For  example,  a  man  has  a  persistent  passionate 
fear-dream  about  horses.  He  suddenly  finds 
himself  among  great,  physical  horses,  which 
may  suddenly  go  wild.  Their  great  bodies  surge 
madly  round  him,  they  rear  above  him,  threat- 
ening to  destroy  him.  At  any  minute  he  may 
be  trampled  down. 

Now  a  psychoanalyst  will  probably  tell  you 
off-hand  that  this  is  a  father-complex  dream. 
Certain  symbols  seem  to  be  put  into  complex 
catalogues.    But  it  is  all  too  arbitrary. 

Examining  the  emotional  reference  we  find 
that  the  feeling  is  sensual,  there  is  a  great  im- 
pression of  the  powerful,  almost  beautiful  physi- 
cal bodies  of  the  horses,  the  nearness,  the  rounded 
haunches,  the  rearing.  Is  the  dynamic  passion 
in  a  horse  the  danger-passion?  It  is  a  great  sen- 
sual reaction  at  the  sacral  ganglion,  a  reaction 
of  intense,  sensual,  dominant  volition.  The 
horse  which  rears  and  kicks  and  neighs  madly 
acts  from  the  intensely  powerful  sacral  ganglion. 
But  this  intense  activity  from  the  sacral  ganglion 
is  male:  the  sacral  ganglion  is  at  its  highest  in- 
tensity in  the  male.  So  that  the  horse-dream 
refers  to  some  arrest  in  the  deepest  sensual 


252       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

activity  in  the  male.  The  horse  is  presented  as 
an  object  of  terror,  which  means  that  to  the 
man's  automatic  dream-soul,  which  loves  auto- 
matism, the  great  sensual  male  activity  is  the 
greatest  menace.  The  automatic  pseudo-soul, 
which  has  got  the  sensual  nature  repressed, 
would  like  to  keep  it  repressed.  Whereas  the 
greatest  desire  of  the  living  spontaneous  soul  is 
that  this  very  male  sensual  nature,  represented 
as  a  menace,  shall  be  actually  accomplished  in 
life.  The  spontaneous  self  is  secretly  yearning 
for  the  liberation  and  fulfillment  of  the  deepest 
and  most  powerful  sensual  nature.  There  may 
be  an  element  of  father-complex.  The  horse 
may  also  refer  to  the  powerful  sensual  being  in 
the  father.  The  dream  may  mean  a  love  of  the 
dreamer  for  the  sensual  male  who  is  his  father. 
But  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  incest.  The  love 
is  probably  a  just  love. 

The  bull-dream  is  a  curious  reversal.  In  the 
bull  the  centers  of  power  are  in  the  breast  and 
shoulders.  The  horns  of  the  head  are  symbols 
of  this  vast  power  in  the  upper  self.  The 
woman's  fear  of  the  bull  is  a  great  terror  of  the 
dynamic  upper  centers  in  man.  The  bull's 
horns,  instead  of  being  phallic,  represent  the 
enormous    potency   of   the   upper   centers.     A 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  253 

woman  whose  most  positive  dynamism  is  in  the 
breast  and  shoulders  is  fascinated  by  the  bull. 
Her  dream-fear  of  the  bull  and  his  horns  which 
may  run  into  her  may  be  reversed  to  a  signifi- 
cance of  desire  for  connection,  not  from  the  cen- 
ters of  the  lower,  sensual  self,  but  from  the  in- 
tense physical  centers  of  the  upper  body:  the 
phallus  polarized  from  the  upper  centers,  and 
directed  towards  the  great  breast  center  of  the 
woman.  Her  wakeful  fear  is  terror  of  the  great 
breast-and-shoulder,  upper  rage  and  power  of 
man,  which  may  pierce  her  defenseless  lower 
self.  The  terror  and  the  desire  are  near  together 
— and  go  with  an  admiration  of  the  slender,  ab- 
stracted bull  loins. 

Other  dream-fears,  or  strong  dream-impres- 
sions, may  be  almost  imageless.  They  may  be  a 
great  terror,  for  example,  of  a  purely  geometric 
figure — a  figure  from  pure  geometry,  or  an  ex- 
ample of  pure  mathematics.  Or  they  may  have 
no  image,  but  only  a  sensation  of  smell,  or  of 
color,  or  of  sound. 

These  are  the  dream-fears  of  the  soul  which 
is  falling  out  of  human  integrity  into  the  purely 
mechanical  mode.  If  we  idealize  ourselves 
sufficiently,  the  spontaneous  centers  do  at  last 
work  only,  or  almost  only,  in  the  mechanical 


254       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

mode.  They  have  no  dynamic  relation  with  an- 
other being.  They  cannot  have.  Their  whole 
power  of  dynamic  relationship  is  quenched. 
They  act  now  in  reference  purely  to  the  me- 
chanical world,  of  force  and  matter,  sensation 
and  law.  So  that  in  dream-activity  sensation  or 
abstraction,  abstract  law  or  calculation  occurs 
as  the  predominant  or  exclusive  image.  In  the 
dream  there  may  be  a  sensation  of  admiration 
or  delight.  The  waking  sensation  is  fear.  Be- 
cause the  soul  fears  above  all  things  its  fall  from 
individual  integrity  into  the  mechanic  activity 
of  the  outer  world,  which  is  the  automatic 
death-world. 

And  this  is  our  danger  to-day.  We  tend, 
through  deliberate  idealism  or  deliberate  ma- 
terial purpose,  to  destroy  the  soul  in  its  first 
nature  of  spontaneous,  integral  being,  and  to 
substitute  the  second  nature,  the  automatic 
nature  of  the  mechanical  universe.  For  this 
purpose  we  stay  up  late  at  night,  and  we  rise 
late  in  the  morning. 

To  stay  up  late  into  the  night  is  always  bad. 
Let  us  be  as  ideal  as  we  may,  when  the  sun  goes 
down  the  natural  mode  of  life  changes  in  us. 
The  mind  changes  its  activity.  As  the  soul  grad- 
ually goes  passive,  before  yielding  up  its  sway, 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  255 

the  mind  falls  into  its  second  phase  of  activity. 
It  collects  the  results  of  the  spent  day  into  con- 
sciousness, lays  down  the  honey  of  quiet  thought, 
or  the  bitter-sweet  honey  of  the  gathered  flower. 
It  is  the  consciousness  of  that  which  is  past. 
Evening  is  our  time  to  read  history  and  tragedy 
and  romance — all  of  which  are  the  utterance  of 
that  which  is  past,  that  which  is  over,  that  which 
is  finished,  is  concluded:  either  sweetly  con- 
cluded, or  bitterly.    Evening  is  the  time  for  this. 

But  evening  is  the  time  also  for  revelry,  for 
drink,  for  passion.  Alcohol  enters  the  blood 
and  acts  as  the  sun's  rays  act.  It  inflames  into 
life,  it  liberates  into  energy  and  consciousness. 
But  by  a  process  of  combustion.  That  life  of  the 
day  which  we  have  not  lived,  by  means  of  sun- 
born  alcohol  we  can  now  flare  into  sensation, 
consciousness,  energy  and  passion,  and  live  it 
out.  It  is  a  liberation  from  the  laws  of  idealism, 
a  release  from  the  restriction  of  control  and 
fear.  It  is  the  blood  bursting  into  consciousness. 
But  naturally  the  course  of  the  liberated  con- 
sciousness may  be  in  either  direction:  sharper 
mental  action,  greater  fervor  of  spiritual  emo- 
tion, or  deeper  sensuality.  Nowadays  the  last 
is  becoming  much  more  unusual. 

The  active  mind-consciousness  of  the  night  is 


256       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

a  form  of  retrospection,  or  else  it  is  a  form  of 
impulsive  exclamation,  direct  from  the  blood, 
and  unbalanced.  Because  the  active  physical 
consciousness  of  the  night  is  the  blood-conscious- 
ness, the  most  elemental  form  of  consciousness. 
Vision  is  perhaps  our  highest  form  of  dynamic 
upper  consciousness.  But  our  deepest  lower 
consciousness  is  blood-consciousness. 

And  the  dynamic  lower  centers  are  swayed 
from  the  blood.  When  the  blood  rouses  into  its 
night  intensity,  it  naturally  kindles  first  the 
lowest  dynamic  centers.  It  transfers  its  voice 
and  its  fire  to  the  great  hypogastric  plexus, 
which  governs,  with  the  help  of  the  sacral  gan- 
glion, the  flow  of  urine  through  us,  but  which 
also  voices  the  deep  swaying  of  the  blood  in  sex 
passion.  Sex  is  our  deepest  form  of  conscious- 
ness. It  is  utterly  non-ideal,  non-mental.  It  is 
pure  blood-consciousness.  It  is  the  basic  con- 
sciousness of  the  blood,  the  nearest  thing  in  us 
to  pure  material  consciousness.  It  is  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  night,  when  the  soul  is  almost 
asleep. 

The  blood-consciousness  is  the  first  and  last 
knowledge  of  the  living  soul :  the  depths.  It  is 
the  soul  acting  in  part  only,  speaking  with  its 
first  hoarse  half-voice.     And   blood-conscious- 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  257 

ness  cannot  operate  purely  until  the  soul  has  put 
off  all  its  manifold  degrees  and  forms  of  upper 
consciousness.  As  the  self  falls  back  into 
quiescence,  it  draws  itself  from  the  brain,  from 
the  great  nerve-centers,  into  the  blood,  where  at 
last  it  will  sleep.  But  as  it  draws  and  folds  itself 
livingly  in  the  blood,  at  the  dark  and  powerful 
hour,  it  sends  out  its  great  call.  For  even  the 
blood  is  alone  and  in  part,  and  needs  an  answer. 
Like  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  blood  is 
divided  in  a  dual  polarity  between  the  sexes.  As 
the  night  falls  and  the  consciousness  sinks  deeper, 
suddenly  the  blood  is  heard  hoarsely  calling. 
Suddenly  the  deep  centers  of  the  sexual  con- 
sciousness rouse  to  their  spontaneous  activity. 
Suddenly  there  is  a  deep  circuit  established  be- 
tween me  and  the  woman.  Suddenly  the  sea  of 
blood  which  is  me  heaves  and  rushes  towards  the 
sea  of  blood  which  is  her.  There  is  a  moment  of 
pure  frictional  crisis  and  contact  of  blood.  And 
then  all  the  blood  in  me  ebbs  back  into  its  ways, 
transmuted,  changed.  And  this  is  the  profound 
basis  of  my  renewal,  my  deep  blood  renewal. 

And  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  pretty  faces 
or  white  skin  or  rosy  breasts  or  any  of  the  rest 
of  the  trappings  of  sexual  love.  These  trap- 
pings belong  to  the  day.    Neither  eyes  nor  hands 


258       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

nor  mouth  have  anything  to  do  with  the  final 
massive  and  dark  collision  of  the  blood  in  the 
sex  crisis,  when  the  strange  flash  of  electric 
transmutation  passes  through  the  blood  of  the 
man  and  the  blood  of  the  woman.  They  fall 
apart  and  sleep  in  their  transmutation. 

But  even  in  its  profoundest,  and  most  ele- 
mental movements,  the  soul  is  still  individual. 
Even  in  its  most  material  consciousness,  it  is 
still  integral  and  individual.  You  would  think 
the  great  blood-stream  of  mankind  was  one  and 
homogeneous.  And  it  is  indeed  more  nearly 
one,  more  near  to  homogeneity  than  anything 
else  within  us.  The  blood-stream  of  mankind 
is  almost  homogeneous. 

But  it  isn't  homogeneous.  In  the  first  place, 
it  is  dual  in  a  perfect  dark  dynamic  polarity,  the 
sexual  polarity.  No  getting  away  from  the  fact 
that  the  blood  of  woman  is  dynamically  polar- 
ized in  opposition,  or  in  difference  to  the  blood 
of  man.  The  crisis  of  their  contact  in  sex  con- 
nection is  the  moment  of  establishment  of  a  new 
flashing  circuit  throughout  the  whole  sea:  the 
dark,  burning  red  waters  of  our  under-world 
rocking  in  a  new  dynamic  rhythm  in  each  of  us. 
And  then  in  the  second  place,  the  blood  of  an  in- 
dividual is  his  own  blood.    That  is,  it  is  indi- 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  259 

vidual.  And  though  we  have  a  potential 
dynamic  sexual  connection,  we  men,  with  almost 
every  woman,  yet  the  great  outstanding  fact  of 
the  individuality  even  of  the  blood  makes  us 
need  a  corresponding  individuality  in  the  woman 
we  are  to  embrace.  The  more  individual  the 
man  or  woman,  the  more  unsatisfactory  is  a  non- 
individual  connection:  promiscuity.  The  more 
individual,  the  more  does  our  blood  cry  out  for 
its  own  specific  answer,  an  individual  woman, 
blood-polarized  with  us. 

We  have  made  the  mistake  of  idealism  again. 
We  have  thought  that  the  woman  who  thinks 
and  talks  as  we  do  will  be  the  blood-answer. 
And  we  force  it  to  be  so.  To  our  disaster.  The 
woman  who  thinks  and  talks  as  we  do  is  almost 
sure  to  have  no  dynamic  blood-polarity  with  us. 
The  dynamic  blood-polarity  would  make  her 
different  from  me,  and  not  like  me  in  her 
thought  mode.  Blood-sympathy  is  so  much 
deeper  than  thought-mode,  that  it  may  result  in 
very  different  expression,  verbally. 

We  have  made  the  mistake  of  turning  life  in- 
side out:  of  dragging  the  day-self  into  the  night, 
and  spreading  the  night-self  over  into  the  day. 
We  have  made  love  and  sex  a  matter  of  seeing 
and  hearing  and  of  day-conscious  manipulation. 


26o       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

We  have  made  men  and  women  come  together 
on  the  grounds  of  this  superficial  likeness  and 
commonalty — their  mental,  and  upper  sym- 
pathetic consciousness.  And  so  we  have  forced 
the  blood  to  submission.  Which  means  we  force 
it  into  disintegration. 

We  have  too  much  light  In  the  night,  and  too 
much  sleep  in  the  day.  It  is  an  evil  thing  for 
us  to  prolong  as  we  do  the  mental,  visual,  ideal 
consciousness  far  into  the  night  when  the  hour 
has  come  for  this  upper  consciousness  to  fade, 
for  the  blood  alone  to  know  and  to  act.  By  pro- 
voking the  reaction  of  the  great  blood-stress,  the 
sex-reaction,  from  the  upper,  outer  mental  con- 
sciousness and  mental  lasciviousness  of  conscious 
purpose,  we  thereby  destroy  the  very  blood  in 
our  bodies.  We  prevent  it  from  having  its  own 
dynamic  sway.  We  prevent  it  from  coming  to 
its  own  dynamic  crisis  and  connection,  from 
finding  its  own  fundamental  being.  No  matter 
how  we  work  our  sex,  from  the  upper  or  outer 
consciousness,  we  don't  achieve  anything  but  the 
falsification  and  impoverishment  of  our  own 
blood-life.  We  have  no  choice.  Either  we  must 
withdraw  from  interference,  or  slowly  de- 
teriorate. 

We  have  made  a  corresponding  mistake  in 


SLEEP  AND  DREAMS  261 

sleeping  on  into  the  day.  Once  the  sun  rises  our 
constitution  changes.  Once  the  sun  is  well  up 
our  sleep — supposing  our  life  fairly  normal — 
is  no  longer  truly  sleep.  When  the  sun  comes 
up  the  centers  of  active  dynamic  upper  con- 
sciousness begin  to  wake.  The  blood  changes 
its  vibration  and  even  its  chemical  constitution. 
And  then  we  too  ought  to  wake.  We  do  our- 
selves great  damage  by  sleeping  too  long  into 
the  day.  The  half-hour's  sleep  after  midday 
meal  is  a  readjustment.  But  the  long  hours  of 
morning  sleep  are  just  a  damage.  We  submit 
our  now  active  centers  of  upper  consciousness 
to  the  dominion  of  the  blood-automatic  flow. 
We  chain  ourselves  down  in  our  morning  sleep. 
We  transmute  the  morning's  blood-strength  into 
false  dreams  and  into  an  ever-increasing  force 
of  inertia^  And  naturally,  in  the  same  line  of 
inertia  we  persist  from  bad  to  worse. 

With  the  result  that  our  chained-down,  active 
nerve-centers  are  half-shattered  before  we  arise. 
We  never  become  newly  day-conscious,  bcause 
we  have  subjected  our  powerful  centers  of  day- 
consciousness  to  be  trampled  and  wasted  into 
dreams  and  inertia  by  the  heavy  flow  of  the 
blood-automatism  in  the  morning  sleeps.  Then 
we  arise  with  a  feeling  of  the  monotony  and 


262       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

automatism  of  life.  There  is  no  good,  glad  re- 
freshing. We  feel  tired  to  start  with.  And 
so  we  protract  our  day-consciousness  on  into 
the  night,  when  we  do  at  last  begin  to  come 
awake,  and  we  tell  ourselves  we  must  sleep, 
sleep,  sleep  in  the  morning  and  the  day-time. 
It  is  better  to  sleep  only  six  hours  than  to  pro- 
long sleep  on  and  on  when  the  sun  has  risen. 
Every  man  and  woman  should  be  forced  out  of 
bed  soon  after  the  sun  has  risen :  particularly  the 
nervous  ones.  And  forced  into  physical  activity. 
Soon  after  dawn  the  vast  majority  of  people 
should  be  hard  at  work.  If  not,  they  will  soon 
be  nervously  diseased. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   LOWER   SELF 

SO  It  comes  about  that  the  moon  is  the  planet 
of  our  nights,  as  the  sun  of  our  days.  And 
this  is  not  just  accidental,  or  even  mechanical. 
The  influence  of  the  moon  upon  the  tides  and 
upon  us  is  not  just  an  accident  in  phenomena. 
It  is  the  result  of  the  creation  of  the  universe  by 
life  itself.  It  was  life  itself  which  threw  the 
moon  apart  on  the  one  hand,  the  sun  on  the 
other.  And  it  is  life  itself  which  keeps  the 
dynamic-vital  relation  constant  between  the 
moon  and  the  living  individuals  of  the  globe. 
The  moon  is  as  dependent  upon  the  life  of  indi- 
viduals, for  her  continued  existence,  as  each 
single  individual  is  dependent  upon  the  moon. 
The  same  with  the  sun.  The  sun  sets  and  has 
his  perfect  polarity  in  the  life-circuit  established 
between  him  and  all  living  individuals.  Break 
that  circuit,  and  the  sun  breaks.  Without  man, 
beasts,  butterflies,  trees,  toads,  the  sun  would 

gutter  out  like  a  spent  lamp.    It  is  the  life-emis- 

263 


264       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

sion  from  individuals  which  feeds  his  burning 
and  establishes  his  sun-heart  in  its  powerful 
equilibrium. 

The  same  with  the  moon.  She  lives  from  us, 
primarily,  and  we  from  her.  Everything  is  a 
question  of  relativity.  Not  only  is  every  force 
relative  to  other  force  or  forces,  but  every  exist- 
ence is  relative  to  other  existences.  Not  only 
does  the  life  of  man  depend  on  man,  beast,  and 
herb,  but  on  the  sun  and  moon,  and  the  stars. 
And  in  another  manner,  the  existence  of  the 
moon  depends  absolutely  on  the  life  of  herb, 
beast,  and  man.  The  existence  of  the  moon  de- 
pends upon  the  life  of  individuals,  that  which 
alone  is  original.  Without  the  life  of  individuals 
the  moon  would  fall  asunder.  And  the  moon 
particularly,  because  she  is  polarized  dynam- 
ically to  this,  our  own  earth.  We  do  not  know 
what  far-ofif  life  breathes  between  the  stars  and 
the  sun.  But  our  life  alone  supports  the  moon. 
Just  as  the  moon  is  the  pole  of  our  single  terres- 
trial individuality. 

Therefore  we  must  know  that  between  the 
moon  and  each  individual  being  exists  a  vital 
dynamic  flow.  The  life  of  individuals  depends 
directly  upon  the  moon,  just  as  the  moon  depends 
directly  upon  the  life  of  individuals. 


THE  LOWER  SELF  265 

But  in  what  way  does  the  life  of  individuals 
depend  directly  upon  the  moon? 

The  moon  is  the  mother  of  darkness.  She  is 
the  clue  to  the  active  darkness.  And  we,  below 
the  waist,  we  have  our  being  in  darkness.  Below 
the  waist  we  are  sightless.  When,  in  the  day- 
time, our  life  is  polarized  upwards,  towards  the 
open,  sun-wakened  eyes  and  the  mind  which  sees 
in  vision,  then  the  powerful  dynamic  centers  of 
the  lower  body  act  in  subservience,  in  their  nega- 
tive polarity.  And  then  we  flow  upwards,  we  go 
forth  seeking  the  universe,  in  vision,  speech,  and 
thought — ^we  go  forth  to  see  all  things,  to  hear 
all  things,  to  know  all  things  by  acquaintance 
and  by  knowledge.  One  flood  of  dynamic  flow 
are  we,  upwards  polarized,  in  our  tallness  and 
our  wide-eyed  spirit  seeking  to  bring  all  the  uni- 
verse into  the  range  of  our  conscious  individual- 
ity, and  eager  always  to  make  new  worlds,  out  of 
this  old  world,  to  bud  new  green  tips  on  the  tree 
of  life.  Just  as  a  tree  would  die  if  it  were  not 
making  new  green  tips  upon  all  its  vast  old  world 
of  a  body,  so  the  whole  universe  would  perish  if 
man  and  beast  and  herb  were  not  always  putting 
forth  a  newness :  the  toad  taking  a  vivider  color, 
spreading  his  hands  a  little  more  gently,  develop- 
ing a  more  ruse  intelligence,  the  birds  adding  a 


266       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

new  note  to  their  speech  and  song,  a  new  sharp 
swerve  to  their  flight,  a  new  nicety  to  their  nests; 
and  man,  making  new  worlds,  new  civilizations. 
If  it  were  not  for  this  striving  into  new  creation 
on  the  part  of  living  individuals,  the  universe 
would  go  dead,  gradually,  gradually  and  fall 
asunder.  Like  a  tree  that  ceases  to  put  forth  new 
green  tips,  and  to  advance  out  a  little  further. 

But  each  new  tip  arises  out  of  the  apparent 
death  of  the  old,  the  preceding  one.  Old  leaves 
have  got  to  fall,  old  forms  must  die.  And  if  men 
must  at  certain  periods  fall  into  death  in  mil- 
lions, why,  so  must  the  leaves  fall  every  single 
autumn.  And  dead  leaves  make  good  mold. 
And  so  dead  men.    Even  dead  men's  souls. 

So  if  death  has  to  be  the  goal  for  a  great  num- 
ber, then  let  it  be  so.  If  America  must  invent 
this  poison-gas,  let  her.  When  death  is  our  goal 
of  goals  we  shall  invent  the  means  of  death,  let 
our  professions  of  benevolence  be  what  they  will. 

But  this  time,  it  seems  to  me,  we  have  con- 
sciously and  responsibly  to  carry  ourselves 
through  the  winter-period,  the  period  of  death 
and  denudation :  that  is,  some  of  us  have,  some 
nation  even  must.  For  there  are  not  now,  as  in 
the  Roman  times,  any  great  reservoirs  of  ener- 
getic barbaric   life.     Goths,    Gauls,   Germans, 


THE  LOWER  SELF  267 

Slavs,  Tartars.  The  world  is  very  full  of  people, 
but  all  fixed  in  civilizations  of  their  own,  and 
they  all  have  all  our  vices,  all  our  mechanisms, 
and  all  our  means  of  destruction.  This  time,  the 
leading  civilization  cannot  die  out  as  Greece, 
Rome,  Persia  died.  It  must  suffer  a  great  col- 
lapse, maybe.  But  it  must  carry  through  all  the 
collapse  the  living  clue  to  the  next  civilization. 
It's  no  good  thinking  we  can  leave  it  to  China 
or  Japan  or  India  or  Africa — any  of  the  great 
swarms. 

And  here  we  are,  we  don't  look  much  like  car- 
rying through  to  a  new  era.  What  have  we  got 
that  will  carry  through  ?  The  latest  craze  is  Mr. 
Einstein's  Relativity  Theory.  Curious  that 
everybody  catches  fire  at  the  word  Relativity. 
There  must  be  something  in  the  mere  suggestion, 
which  we  have  been  waiting  for.  But  what? 
As  far  as  I  can  see.  Relativity  means,  for  the 
common  amateur  mind,  that  there  is  no  one  abso- 
lute force  in  the  physical  universe,  to  which  all 
other  forces  may  be  referred.  There  is  no  one 
single  absolute  central  principle  governing  the 
world.  The  great  cosmic  forces  or  mechanical 
principles  can  only  be  known  in  their  relation  to 
one  another,  and  can  only  exist  in  their  relation 
to  one  another.    But,  says  Einstein,  this  relation 


268       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

between  the  mechanical  forces  is  constant,  and 
may  be  expressed  by  a  mathematical  formula: 
which  mathematical  formula  may  be  used  to 
equate  all  mechanical  forces  of  the  universe. 

I  hope  that  is  not  scientifically  all  wrong.  It 
is  what  I  understand  of  the  Einstein  theory. 
What  I  doubt  is  the  equation  formula.  It  seems 
to  me,  also,  that  the  velocity  of  light  through 
space  is  the  deus  ex  machina  in  Einstein's  phys- 
ics. Somebody  will  some  day  put  salt  on  the  tail 
of  light  as  it  travels  through  space,  and  then  its 
simple  velocity  will  split  up  into  something 
complex,  and  the  Relativity  formula  will  fall  to 
bits. — But  I  am  a  confirmed  outsider,  so  I'll  hold 
my  tongue. 

All  I  know  is  that  people  have  got  the  word 
Relativity  into  their  heads,  and  catchwords  al- 
ways refer  to  some  latent  idea  or  conception  in 
the  popular  mind.  It  has  taken  a  Jew  to  knock 
the  last  center-pin  out  of  our  ideally  spinning 
universe.  The  Jewish  intelligence  for  centuries 
has  been  picking  holes  in  our  ideal  system — sci- 
entific and  sociological.  Very  good  thing  for 
us.  Now  Mr.  Einstein,  we  are  glad  to  say,  has 
pulled  out  the  very  axle  pin.  At  least  that  is 
how  the  vulgar  mind  understands  it.  The  equa- 
tion formula  doesn't  count. — So  now,  the  uni- 


THE  LOWER  SELF  269 

verse,  according  to  the  popular  mind,  can  wob- 
ble about  without  being  pinned  down. — Really, 
an  anarchical  conclusion.  But  the  Jewish  mind 
insidiously  drives  us  to  anarchical  conclusions. 
We  are  glad  to  be  driven  from  false,  automatic 
fixities,  anyhow.  And  once  we  are  driven  right 
on  to  nihilism  we  may  find  a  way  through. 

So,  there  is  nothing  absolute  left  in  the  uni- 
verse. Nothing.  Lord  Haldane  says  pure 
knowledge  is  absolute.  As  far  as  it  goes,  no 
doubt.  But  pure  knowledge  is  only  such  a  tiny 
bit  of  the  universe,  and  always  relative  to  the 
thing  known  and  to  the  knower. 

I  feel  inclined  to  Relativity  myself.  I  think 
there  is  no  one  absolute  principle  in  the  uni- 
verse. I  think  everything  is  relative.  But  I  also 
feel,  most  strongly,  that  in  itself  each  individual 
living  creature  is  absolute:  in  its  own  being. 
And  that  all  things  in  the  universe  are  just  rela- 
tive to  the  individual  living  creature.  And  that 
individual  living  creatures  are  relative  to  each 
other. 

And  what  about  a  goal?  There  is  no  final 
goal.  But  every  step  taken  has  its  own  little  rel- 
ative goal.    So  what  about  the  next  step? 

Well,  first  and  foremost,  that  every  individual 
creature  shall  come  to  its  own  particular  and  in- 


270       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

dividual  fullness  of  being. — Very  nice,  very 
pretty — but  how?  Well,  through  a  living  dy- 
namic relation  to  other  creatures. — Very  nice 
again,  pretty  little  adjectives.  But  what  sort  of 
a  living  dynamic  relation? — ^Well,  not  the  rela- 
tion of  love,  that's  one  thing,  nor  of  brotherhood, 
nor  equality.  The  next  relation  has  got  to  be  a 
relationship  of  men  towards  men  in  a  spirit  of 
unfathomable  trust  and  responsibility,  service 
and  leadership,  obedience  and  pure  authority. 
Men  have  got  to  choose  their  leaders,  and  obey 
them  to  the  death.  And  it  must  be  a  system  of 
culminating  aristocracy,  society  tapering  like  a 
pyramid  to  the  supreme  leader. 

All  of  which  sounds  very  distasteful  at  the 
moment.  But  upon  all  the  vital  lessons  we  have 
learned  during  our  era  of  love  and  spirit  and 
democracy  we  can  found  our  new  order. 

We  wanted  to  be  all  of  a  piece.  And  we 
couldn't  bring  it  off.  Because  we  just  aren't  all 
of  a  piece.  We  wanted  first  to  have  nothing  but 
nice  daytime  selves,  awfully  nice  and  kind  and 
refined.  But  it  didn't  work.  Because  whether 
we  want  it  or  not,  we've  got  night-time  selves. 
And  the  most  spiritual  woman  ever  born  or  made 
has  to  perform  her  natural  functions  just  like 


THE  LOWER  SELF  271 

anybody  else.  We  must  always  keep  in  line  with 
this  fact. 

Well,  then,  we  have  night-time  selves.  And 
the  night-self  is  the  very  basis  of  the  dynamic 
self.  The  blood-consciousness  and  the  blood- 
passion  is  the  very  source  and  origin  of  us.  Not 
that  we  can  stay  at  the  source.  Nor  even  make 
a  goal  of  the  source,  as  Freud  does.  The  busi- 
ness of  living  is  to  travel  away  from  the  source. 
But  you  must  start  every  single  day  fresh  from 
the  source.  You  must  rise  every  day  afresh  out 
of  the  dark  sea  of  the  blood. 

When  you  go  to  sleep  at  night,  you  have  to 
say:  "Here  dies  the  man  I  am  and  know  myself 
to  be."  And  when  you  rise  in  the  morning  you 
have  to  say:  "Here  rises  an  unknown  quantity 
which  is  still  myself." 

The  self  which  rises  naked  every  morning  out 
of  the  dark  sleep  of  the  passionate,  hoarsely-call- 
ing blood :  this  is  the  unit  for  the  next  society. 
And  the  polarizing  of  the  passionate  blood  in  the 
individual  towards  life,  and  towards  leader,  this 
must  be  the  dynamic  of  the  next  civilization. 
The  intense,  passionate  yearning  of  the  soul  to- 
wards the  soul  of  a  stronger,  greater  individual, 
and  the  passionate  blood-belief  in  the  fulfillment 


272        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

of  this  yearning  will  give  men  the  next  motive 
for  life. 

We  have  to  sink  back  into  the  darkness  and  the 
elemental  consciousness  of  the  blood.  And  from 
this  rise  again.  But  there  is  no  rising  until  the 
bath  of  darkness  and  extinction  is  accomplished. 

As  social  units,  as  civilized  men  we  have  to  do 
what  we  do  as  physical  organisms.  Every  day, 
the  sun  sets  from  the  sky,  and  darkness  falls,  and 
every  day,  when  this  happens,  the  tide  of  life 
turns  in  us.  Instead  of  flowing  upwards  and  out- 
wards towards  mental  consciousness  and  activity, 
it  turns  back,  to  flow  downwards.  Downwards 
towards  the  digestion  processes,  downwards  fur- 
ther to  the  great  sexual  conjunctions,  downwards 
to  sleep. 

This  is  the  soul  now  retreating,  back  from  the 
outer  life  of  day,  back  to  the  origins.  And  so,  it 
stays  its  hour  at  the  first  great  sensual  stations, 
the  solar  plexus  and  the  lumbar  ganglion.  But 
the  tide  ebbs  on,  down  to  the  immense,  almost 
inhuman  passionate  darkness  of  sex,  the  strange 
and  moon-like  intensity  of  the  hypogastric  plexus 
and  the  sacral  ganglion,  then  deep,  deeper,  past 
the  last  great  station  of  the  darkest  psyche,  down 
to  the  earth's  center.    Then  we  sleep. 

And  the  moon  is  the  tide-turner.    The  moon  is 


THE  LOWER  SELF  273 

the  great  cosmic  pole  Which  calls  us  back,  back 
out  of  our  day-self,  back  through  the  moonlit 
darknesses  of  the  sensual  planes,  to  sleep.  It  is 
the  moon  that  sways  the  blood,  and  sways  us 
back  into  the  extinction  of  the  blood. — And  as 
the  soul  retreats  back  into  the  sea  of  its  own  dark- 
ness, the  mind,  stage  by  stage,  enjoys  the  mental 
consciousness  that  belongs  to  this  retreat  back 
into  the  sensual  deeps;  and  then  it  goes  extin- 
guished.   There  is  sleep. 

And  so  we  resolve  back  towards  our  ele- 
mentals.  We  dissolve  back,  out  of  the  upper 
consciousness,  out  of  mind  and  sight  and  speech, 
back,  down  into  the  deep  and  massive,  swaying 
consciousness  of  the  dark,  living  blood.  At  the 
last  hour  of  sex  I  am  no  more  than  a  powerful 
wave  of  mounting  blood.  Which  seeks  to  surge 
and  join  with  the  answering  sea  in  the  other  in- 
dividual. When  the  sea  of  individual  blood 
which  I  am  at  that  hour  heaves  and  finds  its 
pure  contact  with  the  sea  of  individual  blood 
which  is  the  woman  at  that  hour,  then  each  of  us 
enters  into  the  wholeness  of  our  deeper  infini- 
tude, our  profound  fullness  of  being,  in  the 
ocean  of  our  oneness  and  our  consciousness. 

This  is  under  the  spell  of  the  moon,  of  sea- 
born Aphrodite,  mother  and  bitter  goddess.  For 


274       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

I  am  carried  away  from  my  sunny  day-self  into 
this  other  tremendous  self,  where  knowledge 
will  not  save  me,  but  where  I  must  obey  as  the 
sea  obeys  the  tides.  Yet  however  much  I  go,  I 
know  that  I  am  all  the  while  myself,  in  my 
going. 

This  then  is  the  duality  of  my  day  and  my 
night  being :  a  duality  so  bitter  to  an  adolescent. 
For  the  adolescent  thinks  with  shame  and  terror 
of  his  night.  He  would  wish  to  have  no  night- 
self.    But  it  is  Moloch,  and  he  cannot  escape  it. 

The  tree  is  born  of  its  roots  and  its  leaves.  And 
we  of  our  days  and  our  nights.  Without  the 
night-consummation  we  are  trees  without  roots. 

And  the  night-consummation  takes  place  un- 
der the  spell  of  the  moon.  It  is  one  pure  motion 
of  meeting  and  oneing.  But  even  so,  it  is  a  cir- 
cuit, not  a  straight  line.  One  pure  motion  of 
meeting  and  oneing,  until  the  flash  breaks  forth, 
when  the  two  are  one.  And  this,  this  flashing 
moment  of  the  ignition  of  two  seas  of  blood,  this 
is  the  moment  of  begetting.  But  the  begetting  of 
a  child  is  less  than  the  begetting  of  the  man  and 
the  woman.  Woman  is  begotten  of  man  at  that 
moment,  into  her  greater  self :  and  man  is  begot- 
ten of  woman.  This  is  the  main.  And  that  which 
cannot  be  fulfilled,  perfected  in  the  two  individ- 


THE  LOWER  SELF  275 

uals,  that  which  cannot  take  fire  into  individual 
life,  this  trickles  down  and  is  the  seed  of  a  new 
life,  destined  ultimately  to  fulfill  that  which  the 
parents  could  not  fulfill.    So  it  is  for  ever. 

Sex  then  is  a  polarization  of  the  individual 
blood  in  man  towards  the  individual  blood  in 
woman.  It  is  more,  also.  But  in  its  prime  func- 
tional reality  it  is  this.  And  sex  union  means 
bringing  into  connection  the  dynamic  poles  of 
sex  in  man  and  woman. 

In  sex  we  have  our  basic,  most  elemental  be- 
ing. Here  we  have  our  most  elemental  contact. 
It  is  from  the  hypogastric  plexus  and  the  sacral 
ganglion  that  the  dark  forces  of  manhood  and 
womanhood  sparkle.  From  the  dark  plexus  of 
sympathy  run  out  the  acute,  intense  sympathetic 
vibrations  direct  to  the  corresponding  pole.  Or 
so  it  should  be,  in  genuine  passionate  love.  There 
is  no  mental  interference.  There  is  even  no  in- 
terference of  the  upper  centers.  Love  is  sup- 
posed to  be  blind.  Though  modern  love  wears 
strong  spectacles. 

But  love  is  really  blind.  Without  sight  or 
scent  or  hearing  the  powerful  magnetic  current 
vibrates  from  the  hypogastric  plexus  in  the  fe- 
male, vibrating  on  to  the  air  like  some  intense 
wireless  message.     And  there  is  immediate  re- 


276       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS  • 

sponse  from  the  sacral  ganglion  in  some  male. 
And  then  sight  and  day-consciousness  begin  to 
fade.  In  the  lower  animals  apparently  any  male 
can  receive  the  vibration  of  any  female:  and  if 
need  be,  even  across  long  distances  of  space.  But 
the  higher  the  development  the  more  individual 
the  attunement.  Every  wireless  station  can  only 
receive  those  messages  which  are  in  its  own  vi- 
bration key.  So  with  sex  in  specialized  individ- 
uals. From  the  powerful  dynamic  center  the 
female  sends  out  her  dark  summons,  the  intense 
dark  vibration  of  sex.  And  according  to  her  na- 
ture, she  receives  her  responses  from  the  males. 
The  male  enters  the  magnetic  field  of  the  female. 
He  vibrates  helplessly  in  response.  There  is 
established  at  once  a  dynamic  circuit,  more  or 
less  powerful.  It  would  seem  as  if,  while  ever 
life  remains  free  and  wild  and  independent,  the 
sex-circuit,  while  it  lasts,  is  omnipotent.  There 
is  one  electric  flow  which  encompasses  one  male 
and  one  female,  or  one  male  and  one  particular 
group  of  females  all  polarized  in  the  same  key 
of  vibration. 

This  circuit  of  vital  sex  magnetism,  at  first 
loose  and  wide,  gradually  closes  and  becomes 
more  powerful,  contracts  and  grows  more  in- 
tense, until  the  two  individuals  arrive  into  con- 


THE   LOWER   SELF  277 

tact.  And  even  then  the  pulse  and  flow  of  attrac- 
tion and  recoil  varies.  In  free  wild  life,  each 
touch  brings  about  an  intense  recoil,  and  each 
recoil  causes  an  intense  sympathetic  attraction. 
So  goes  on  the  strange  battle  of  desire,  until  the 
consummation  is  reached. 

It  is  the  precise  parallel  of  what  happens  in  a 
thunder-storm,  when  the  dynamic  forces  of  the 
moon  and  the  sun  come  into  collision.  The  re- 
sult is  threefold :  first,  the  electric  flash,  then  the 
birth  of  pure  water,  new  water. 

So  it  is  in  sex  relation.  There  is  a  threefold 
result.  First,  the  flash  of  pure  sensation  and  of 
real  electricity.  Then  there  is  the  birth  of  an 
entirely  new  state  of  blood  in  each  partner.  And 
then  there  is  the  liberation. 

But  the  main  thing,  as  in  the  thunder-storm,  is 
the  absolute  renewal  of  the  atmosphere:  in  this 
case,  the  blood.  It  would  no  doubt  be  found 
that  the  electro-dynamic  condition  of  the  white 
and  red  corpuscles  of  the  blood  was  quite  differ- 
ent after  sex  union,  and  that  the  chemical  com- 
position of  the  fluid  of  the  blood  was  quite 
changed. 

And  in  this  renewal  lies  the  great  magic  of 
sex.  The  life  of  an  individual  goes  on  appar- 
ently the  same  from  day  to  day.  •  But  as  a  matter 


278        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

of  fact  there  is  an  inevitable  electric  accumula- 
tion in  the  nerves  and  the  blood,  an  accumula- 
tion which  weighs  there  and  broods  there  with 
intolerable  pressure.  And  the  only  possible 
means  of  relief  and  renewal  is  in  pure  passional 
interchange.  There  is  and  must  be  a  pure  pas- 
sional interchange  from  the  upper  self,  as  when 
men  unite  in  some  great  creative  or  religious  or 
constructive  activity,  or  as  when  they  fight  each 
other  to  the  death.  The  great  goal  of  creative 
or  constructive  activity,  or  of  heroic  victory  in 
fight,  must  always  be  the  goal  of  the  day- 
time self.  But  the  very  possibility  of  such  a 
goal  arises  out  of  the  vivid  dynamism  of  the  con- 
scious blood.  And  the  blood  in  an  individual 
finds  its  great  renewal  in  a  perfected  sex  circuit. 
A  perfected  sex  circuit  and  a  successful  sex 
union.  And  there  can  be  no  successful  sex 
union  unless  the  greater  hope  of  purposive, 
constructive  activity  fires  the  soul  of  the  man 
all  the  time :  or  the  hope  of  passionate,  purposive 
destructive  activity:  the  two  amount  religiously 
to  the  same  thing,  within  the  individual.  Sex  as 
an  end  in  itself  is  a  disaster :  a  vice.  But  an  ideal 
purpose  which  has  no  roots  in  the  deep  sea  of 
passionate  sex  is  a  greater  disaster  still.  And 
now  we  have  only  these  two  things :  sex  as  a  fatal 


THE  LOWER  SELF  279 

goal,  which  is  the  essential  theme  of  modern 
tragedy:  or  ideal  purpose  as  a  deadly  parasite. 
Sex  passion  as  a  goal  in  itself  always  leads  to 
tragedy.  There  must  be  the  great  purposive 
inspiration  always  present.  But  the  automatic 
ideal-purpose  is  not  even  a  tragedy,  it  is  a  slow 
humiliation  and  sterility. 

The  great  thing  is  to  keep  the  sexes  pure.  And 
by  pure  we  don't  mean  an  ideal  sterile  innocence 
and  similarity  between  boy  and  girl.  We  mean 
pure  maleness  in  a  man,  pure  femaleness  in  a 
woman.  Woman  is  really  polarized  downwards, 
towards  the  center  of  the  earth.  Her  deep  pos- 
itivity  is  in  the  downward  flow,  the  moon-pull. 
And  man  is  polarized  upwards,  towards  the  sun 
and  the  day's  activity.  Women  and  men  are 
dynamically  different,  in  everything.  Even  in 
the  mind,  where  we  seem  to  meet,  we  are  really 
utter  strangers.  We  may  speak  the  same  verbal 
language,  men  and  women :  as  Turk  and  German 
might  both  speak  Latin.  But  whatever  a  man 
says,  his  meaning  is  something  quite  different 
and  changed  when  it  passes  through  a  woman's 
ears.  And  though  you  reverse  the  sexual  polar- 
ity, the  flow  between  the  sexes,  still  the  difference 
is  the  same.  The  apparent  mutual  understand- 
ing, in  companionship  between  a  man  and  a 


i28o       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

woman,  is  always  an  illusion,  and  always  breaks 
down  in  the  end. 

Woman  can  polarize  her  consciousness  up- 
wards. She  can  obtain  a  hand  even  over  her  sex 
receptivity.  She  can  divert  even  the  electric 
spasm  of  coition  into  her  upper  consciousness: 
it  was  the  trick  which  the  snake  and  the  apple 
between  them  taught  her.  The  snake,  whose 
consciousness  is  only  dynamic,  and  non-cerebral. 
The  snake,  who  has  no  mental  life,  but  only  an 
intensely  vivid  dynamic  mind,  he  envied  the  hu- 
man race  its  mental  consciousness.  And  he 
knew,  this  intensely  wise  snake,  that  the  one  way 
to  make  humanity  pay  more  than  the  price  of 
mental  consciousness  was  to  pervert  woman  into 
mentality:  to  stimulate  her  into  the  upper  flow 
of  consciousness. 

For  the  true  polarity  of  consciousness  in  wom- 
an is  downwards.  Her  deepest  consciousness 
is  in  the  loins  and  belly.  Even  when  perverted, 
it  is  so.  The  great  flow  of  female  consciousness 
is  downwards,  down  to  the  weight  of  the  loins 
and  round  the  circuit  of  the  feet.  Pervert  this, 
and  make  a  false  flow  upwards,  to  the  breast  and 
head,  and  you  get  a  race  of  "intelligent"  women, 
delightful  companions,  tricky  courtesans,  clever 
prostitutes,  noble  idealists,  devoted  friends,  in- 


THE  LOWER  SELF  281 

teresting  mistresses,  efficient  workers,  brilliant 
managers,  women  as  good  as  men  at  all  the 
manly  tricks:  and  better,  because  they  are  so 
very  headlong  once  they  go  in  for  men's  tricks. 
But  then,  after  a  while,  pop  it  all  goes.  The 
moment  woman  has  got  man's  ideals  and  tricks 
drilled  into  her,  the  moment  she  is  competent  in 
the  manly  world — there's  an  end  of  it.  She's  had 
enough.  She's  had  more  than  enough.  She 
hates  the  thing  she  has  embraced.  She  becomes 
absolutely  perverse,  and  her  one  end  is  to  pros- 
titute herself  and  her  ideals  to  sex.  Which  is  her 
business  at  the  present  moment. 

We  bruise  the  serpent's  head:  his  flat  and 
brainless  head.  But  his  revenge  of  bruising  our 
heel  is  a  good  one.  The  heels,  through  which 
the  powerful  downward  circuit  flows:  these  are 
bruised  in  us,  numbed  with  a  horrible  neurotic 
numbness.  The  dark  strong  flow  that  polarizes 
us  to  the  earth's  center  is  hampered,  broken.  We 
become  flimsy  fungoid  beings,  with  no  roots  and 
no  hold  in  the  earth,  like  mushrooms.  The  ser- 
pent has  bruised  our  heel  till  we  limp.  The  lame 
godSj  the  enslaved  gods,  the  toiling  limpers 
moaning  for  the  woman.  You  don't  find  the  sun 
and  moon  playing  at  pals  in  the  sky.     Their 


282       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

beams  cross  the  great  gulf  which  is  between 
them. 

So  with  man  and  woman.  They  must  stand 
clear  again.  They  must  fight  their  way  out  of 
their  self-consciousness:  there  is  nothing  else. 
Or,  rather,  each  must  fight  the  other  out  of  self- 
consciousness.  Instead  of  this  leprous  forbear- 
ance which  we  are  taught  to  practice  in  our  in- 
timate relationships,  there  should  be  the  most 
intense  open  antagonism.  If  your  wife  flirts 
with  other  men,  and  you  don't  like  it,  say  so  be- 
fore them  all,  before  wife  and  man  and  all,  say 
you  won't  have  it.  If  she  seems  to  you  false,  in 
any  circumstance,  tell  her  so,  angrily,  furiously, 
and  stop  her.  Never  mind  about  being  justified. 
If  you  hate  anything  she  does,  turn  on  her  in  a 
fury.  Harry  her,  and  make  her  life  a  hell,  so 
long  as  the  real  hot  rage  is  in  you.  Don't  silently 
hate  her,  or  silently  forbear.  It  is  such  a  dirty 
trick,  so  mean  and  ungenerous.  If  you  feel  a 
burning  rage,  turn  on  her  and  give  it  to  her, 
and  never  repent.  It'll  probably  hurt  you  much 
more  than  it  hurts  her.  But  never  repent  for 
your  real  hot  rages,  whether  they're  "justifiable" 
or  not.  If  you  care  one  sweet  straw  for  the 
woman,  and  if  she  makes  you  that  you  can't  bear 
any  more,  give  it  to  her,  and  if  your  heart  weeps 


THE  LOWER  SELF  283 

tears  of  blood  afterwards,  tell  her  you're  thank- 
ful she's  got  it  for  once,  and  you  wish  she  had  it 
worse. 

The  same  with  wives  and  their  husbands.  If 
a  woman's  husband  gets  on  her  nerves,  she  should 
fly  at  him.  If  she  thinks  him  too  sweet  and 
smarmy  with  other  people,  she  should  let  him 
have  it  to  his  nose,  straight  out.  She  should  lead 
him  a  dog's  life,  and  never  swallow  her  bile. 

With  wife  or  husband,  you  should  never  swal- 
low your  bile.  It  makes  you  go  all  wrong  inside. 
Always  let  fly,  tooth  and  nail,  and  never  repent, 
no  matter  what  sort  of  a  figure  you  make. 

We  have  a  vice  of  love,  of  softness  and  sweet- 
ness and  smarminess  and  intimacy  and  promis- 
cuous kindness  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  We 
think  it's  so  awfully  nice  of  us  to  be  like  that,  in 
ourselves.  -  But  in  our  wives  or  our  husbands  it 
gets  on  our  nerves  horribly.  Yet  we  think  it 
oughtn't  to,  so  we  swallow  our  spleen. 

We  shouldn't.  When  Jesus  said  "if  thine  eye 
offend  thee,  pluck  it  out,"  he  was  beside  the 
point.  The  eye  doesn't  really  offend  us.  We 
ape  rather  fond  of  our  own  squint  eye.  It  only 
offends  the  person  who  cares  for  us.  And  it's 
up  to  this  person  to  pluck  it  out. 

This  holds  particularly  good  of  the  love  and 


284       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

intimacy  vice.  It'll  never  offend  us  in  ourselves. 
While  it  will  be  gall  and  wormwood  to  our  wife 
or  husband.  And  it  is  on  this  promiscuous  love 
and  intimacy  and  kindness  and  sweetness,  all  a 
vice,  that  our  self-consciousness  really  rests.  If 
we  are  battered  out  of  this,  we  shall  be  battered 
out  of  self-consciousness. 

And  so,  men,  drive  your  wives,  beat  them  out 
of  their  self-consciousness  and  their  soft  smarmi- 
ness  and  good,  lovely  idea  of  themselves.  Abso- 
lutely tear  their  lovely  opinion  of  themselves  to 
tatters,  and  make  them  look  a  holy  ridiculous 
sight  in  their  own  eyes.  Wives,  do  the  same  to 
your  husbands. 

But  fight  for  your  life,  men.  Fight  your  wife 
out  of  her  own  self-conscious  preoccupation  with 
herself.  Batter  her  out  of  it  till  she's  stunned. 
Drive  her  back  into  her  own  true  mode.  Rip  all 
her  nice  superimposed  modern-woman  and  won- 
derful-creature garb  off  her.  Reduce  her  once 
more  to  a  naked  Eve,  and  send  the  apple  flying. 

Make  her  yield  to  her  own  real  unconscious 
self,  and  absolutely  stamp  on  the  self  that  she's 
got  in  her  head.  Drive  her  forcibly  back,  back 
into  her  own  true  unconscious. 

And  then  you've  got  a  harder  thing  still  to  do. 
Stop  her  from  looking  on  you  as  her  "lover." 


THE  LOWER  SELF  285 

Cure  her  of  that,  if  you  haven't  cured  her  before. 
Put  the  fear  of  the  Lord  into  her  that  way.  And 
make  her  know  she's  got  to  believe  in  you  again, 
and  in  the  deep  purpose  you  stand  for.  But  be- 
fore you  can  do  that,  you've  got  to  stand  for 
some  deep  purpose.  It's  no  good  faking  one  up. 
You  won't  take  a  woman  in,  not  really.  Even 
when  she  chooses  to  be  taken  in,  for  prettiness' 
sake,  it  won't  do  you  any  good. 

But  combat  her.  Combat  her  in  her  sexual 
pertinacity,  and  in  her  secret  glory  or  arrogance 
in  the  sexual  goal.  Combat  her  in  her  cock-sure 
belief  that  she  "knows"  and  that  she  is  "right." 
Take  it  all  out  of  her.  Make  her  yield  once 
more  to  the  male  leadership :  if  you've  got  any- 
where to  lead  to.  If  you  haven't,  best  leave  the 
woman  alone;  she  has  one  goal  of  her  own,  any- 
how, and  it's  better  than  your  nullity  and  emp- 
tiness. 

You've  got  to  take  a  new  resolution  into  your 
soul,  and  break  off  from  the  old  way.  You've 
got  to  know  that  you're  a  man,  and  being  a  man 
m^ans  you  must  go  on  alone,  ahead  of  the  wom- 
an, to  break  a  way  through  the  old  world  into 
the  new.  And  you've  got  to  be  alone.  And 
you've  got  to  start  off  ahead.  And  if  you  don't 
know  which  direction  to  take,  look  round  for  the 


286       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

man  your  heart  will  point  out  to  you.  And  fol- 
low— and  never  look  back.  Because  if  Lot's 
wife,  looking  back,  was  turned  to  a  pillar  of 
salt,  these  miserable  men,  for  ever  looking  back 
to  their  women  for  guidance,  they  are  miserable 
pillars  of  half-rotten  tears. 

You'll  have  to  fight  to  make  a  woman  believe 
in  you  as  a  real  man,  a  real  pioneer.  No  man  is 
a  man  unless  to  his  woman  he  is  a  pioneer. 
You'll  have  to  fight  still  harder  to  make  her 
yield  her  goal  to  yours:  her  night  goal  to  your 
day  goal.  The  moon,  the  planet  of  women, 
sways  us  back  from  our  day-self,  sways  us  back 
from  our  real  social  unison,  sways  us  back,  like* 
a  retreating  tide,  in  a  friction  of  criticism  and 
separation  and  social  disintegration.  That  is 
woman's  inevitable  mode,  let  her  words  be  what 
they  will.  Her  goal  is  the  deep,  sensual  individ- 
ualism of  secrecy  and  night-exclusiveness,  hos- 
tile, with  guarded  doors.  And  you'll  have  to 
fight  very  hard  to  make  a  woman  yield  her  goal 
to  yours,  to  make  her,  in  her  own  soul,  believe  in 
your  goal  as  the  goal  beyond,  in  her  goal  as  the 
way  by  which  you  go.  She'll  never  believe  until 
you  have  your  soul  filled  with  a  profound  and 
absolutely  inalterable  purpose,  that  will  yield 
to  nothing,  least  of  all  to  her.    She'll  never  be- 


THE  LOWER  SELF  287 

lieve  until,  in  your  soul,  you  are  cut  ofif  and  gone 
ahead,  into  the  dark. 

She  may  of  course  already  love  you,  and  love 
you  for  yourself.  .But  the  love  will  be  a  nest 
of  scorpions  unless  it  is  overshadowed  by  a  little 
fear  or  awe  of  your  further  purpose,  a  living 
belief  in  your  going  beyond  her,  into  futurity. 

But  when  once  a  woman  does  believe  in  her 
man,  in  the  pioneer  which  he  is,  the  pioneer  who 
goes  on  ahead  beyond  her,  into  the  darkness  in 
front,  and  who  may  be  lost  to  her  for  ever  in  this 
darkness;  when  once  she  knows  the  pain  and 
beauty  of  this  belief,  knows  that  the  loneliness 
of  waiting  and  following  is  inevitable,  that  it 
must  be  so;  ah,  then,  how  wonderful  it  is!  How 
wonderful  it  is  to  come  back  to  her,  at  evening, 
as  she  sits  half  in  fear  and  waits!  How  good  it 
is  to  come  home  to  her!  How  good  it  is  then 
when  the  night  falls!  How  richly  the  evening 
passes!  And  then,  for  her,  at  last,  all  that  she 
hsfs  lost  during  the  day  to  have  it  again  between 
her  arms,  all  that  she  has  missed,  to  have  it 
poured  out  for  her,  and  a  richness  and  a  wonder 
she  had  never  expected.  It  is  her  hour,  her  goal. 
That's  what  it  is  to  have  a  wife. 

Ah,  how  good  it  is  to  come  home  to  your  wife 
when  she  believes  in  you  and  submits  to  your 


288       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

purpose  that  is  beyond  her.  Then,  how  wonder- 
ful this  nightfall  is!  How  rich  you  feel,  tired, 
with  all  the  burden  of  the  day  in  your  veins, 
turning  home!  Then  you  too  turn  to  your  other 
goal:  to  the  splendor  of  darkness  between  her 
arms.  And  you  know  the  goal  is  there  for  you : 
how  rich  that  feeling  is.  And  you  feel  an  un- 
fathomable gratitude  to  the  woman  who  loves 
you  and  believes  in  your  purpose  and  receives 
you  into  the  magnificent  dark  gratification  of  her 
embrace.    That's  what  it  is  to  have  a  wife. 

But  no  man  ever  had  a  wife  unless  he  served 
a  great  predominant  purpose.  Otherwise,  he 
has  a  lover,  a  mistress.  No  matter  how  much 
she  may  be  married  to  him,  unless  his  days  have 
a  living  purpose,  constructive  or  destructive,  but 
a  purpose  beyond  her  and  all  she  stands  for; 
unless  his  days  have  this  purpose,  and  his  soul  is 
really  committed  to  his  purpose,  she  will  not  be 
a  wife,  she  will  be  only  a  mistress  and  he  will 
be  her  lover. 

If  the  man  has  no  purpose  for  his  days,  then  to 
the  woman  alone  remains  the  goal  of  her  nights: 
the  great  sex  goal.  And  this  goal  is  no  goal,  but 
always  cries  for  the  something  beyond:  for  the 
rising  in  the  morning  and  the  going  forth  be- 
yond, the  man  disappearing  ahead  into  the  dis- 


THE  LOWER  SELF  289 

tance  of  futurity,  that  which  his  purpose  stands 
for,  the  future.  The  sex  goal  needs,  absolutely 
needs,  this  further  departure.  And  if  there  be 
no  further  departure,  no  great  way  of  belief  on 
ahead:  and  if  sex  is  the  starting  point  and  the 
goal  as  well :  then  sex  becomes  like  the  bottom- 
less pit,  insatiable.  It  demands  at  last  the  de- 
parture into  death,  the  only  available  beyond. 
Like  Carmen,  or  like  Anna  Karenina.  When  sex 
is  the  starting  point  and  the  returning  point  both, 
then  the  only  issue  is  death.  Which  is  plain  as 
a  pike-staff  in  ''Carmen''  or  ''Anna  Karenina," 
and  is  the  theme  of  almost  all  modern  tragedy. 
Our  one  hackneyed,  hackneyed  theme.  Ecstasies 
and  agonies  of  love,  and  final  passion  of  death. 
Death  is  the  only  pure,  beautiful  conclusion  of  a 
great  passion.  Lovers,  pure  lovers  should  say 
"Let  it  be  so." 

And  one  is  always  tempted  to  say  "Let  it  be 
so."  But  no,  let  it  be  not  so.  Only  I  say  this, 
let  it  be  a  great  passion  and  then  death,  rather 
than  a  false  or  faked  purpose.  Tolstoi  said  "No" 
to  the  passion  and  the  death  conclusion.  And 
then  drew  into  the  dreary  issue  of  a  false  con- 
clusion. His  books  were  better  than  his  life. 
Better  the  woman's  goal,  sex  and  death,  than 
some  false  goal  of  man's* 


290       FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

Better  Anna  Karenina  and  Vronsky  a  thousand 
times  than  Natasha  and  that  porpoise  of  a 
Pierre.  This  pretty,  slightly  sordid  couple 
tried  so  hard  to  kid  themselves  that  the  porpoise 
Pierre  was  puffing  with  great  purpose.  Better 
Vransky  than  Tolstoi  himself,  in  my  mind.  Bet- 
ter Vronsky's  final  statement:  ^^As  a  soldier  I  am 
still  some  good.  As  a  man  I  am  a  ruin" — better 
that  than  Tolstoi  and  Tolstoi-ism  and  that 
beastly  peasant  blouse  the  old  man  wore. 

Better  passion  and  death  than  any  more  of 
these  ^*isms."  No  more  of  the  old  purpose  done 
up  in  aspic.    Better  passion  and  death. 

But  still — we  might  live,  mightn't  we? 

For  heaven's  sake  answer  plainly  **No,"  if 
you  feel  like  it.    No  good  temporizing. 


EPILOGUE 

^^Tutti  i  salmi  finiscono  in  gloria," 

All  the  psalms  wind  up  with  the  Gloria. — "As 
it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be. 
World  without  end.    Amen." 

Well,  then.  Amen. 

I  hope  you  say  Amen!  along  with  me,  dear 
little  reader:  if  there  be  any  dear  little  reader 
who  has  got  so  far.  If  not,  I  say  Amen!  all  by 
myself. — But  don't  you  think  the  show  is  all 
over.  IVe  got  another  volume  up  my  sleeve, 
and  after  a  year  or  two  years,  when  I  have  shaken 
it  down  my  sleeve,  I  shall  bring  it  and  lay  it  at 
the  foot  of  your  Liberty  statue,  oh  Columbia,  as 
I  do  this  one. 

I  suppose  Columbia  means  the  States. — 
"Hail  Columbia!" — I  suppose,  etymologically, 
it  is  a  nest  of  turtle-doves,  Lat.  columba,  a  dove. 
Coo  me  softly,  then,  Columbia;  don't  roar  me 
like  the  sucking  doves  of  the  critics  of  my  "Psy- 
choanalysis and  the  Unconscious." 

And  when  I  lay  this  little  book  at  the  foot  of 

the  Liberty  statue,  that  brawny  lady  is  not  to 

291 


292        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

look  down  her  nose  and  bawl:  "Do  you  see  any 
green  in  my  eye?"  Of  course  I  don't,  dear  lady. 
I  only  see  the  reflection  of  that  torch — or  is  it  a 
carrot? — ^which  you  are  holding  up  to  light  the 
way  into  New  York  harbor.  Well,  many  an  ass 
has  strayed  across  the  uneasy  paddock  of  the 
Atlantic,  to  nibble  your  carrot,  dear  lady.  And 
I  must  say,  you  can  keep  on  slicing  off  nice  little 
carrot-slices  of  guineas  and  doubloons  for  an  ex- 
traordinarily inexhaustible  long  time.  And  in- 
numerable asses  can  collect  themselves  nice  little 
heaps  of  golden  carrot-slices,  and  then  lift  up 
their  heads  and  brag  over  them  with  fairly  pan- 
demoniac  yells  of  gratification.  Of  course  I  don't 
see  any  green  in  your  eye,  dear  Libertas,  unless 
it  is  the  smallest  glint  from  the  carrot-tips.  The 
gleam  in  your  eye  is  golden,  oh  Columbia  1 

Nevertheless,  and  in  spite  of  all  this,  up  trots 
this  here  little  ass  and  makes  you  a  nice  present 
of  this  pretty  book.  You  needn't  sniff,  and  glance 
at  your  carrot-sceptre,  lady  Liberty.  You  needn't 
throw  down  the  thinnest  carrot-paring  you  can 
pare  off,  and  then  say:  "Why  should  I  pay  for 
this  tripe,  this  wordy  mass  of  rather  revolting 
nonsense!"  You  can't  pay  for  it,  darling.  If  I 
didn't  make  you  a  present  of  it  you  could  never 
buy  it.    So  don't  shake  your  carrot-sceptre  and 


EPILOGUE  293 

feel  supercilious.  Here's  a  gift  for  you,  Missis. 
You  can  look  in  its  mouth,  too.  Mind  it  doesn't 
bite  you. — No,  you  needn't  bother  to  put  your 
carrot  behind  your  back,  nobody  wants  to 
snatch  it. 

How  do  you  do,  Columbia!  Look,  I  brought 
you  a  posy:  this  nice  little  posy  of  words  and 
wisdom  which  I  made  for  you  in  the  woods  of 
Ebersteinburg,  on  the  borders  of  the  Black  For- 
est, near  Baden  Baden,  in  Germany,  in  this  sum- 
mer of  scanty  grace  but  nice  weather.  I  made  it 
specially  for  you — ^Whitman,  for  whom  I  have 
an  immense  regard,  says  '^These  States."  I  sup- 
pose I  ought  to  say:  ^^Those  States."  If  the  pub- 
lisher would  let  me,  I'd  dedicate  this  book  to  you, 
to  ^Those  States."  Because  I  wrote  this  book 
entirely  for  you,  Columbia.  You  may  not  take 
it  as  a  compliment.  You  may  even  smell  a  tiny 
bit  of  Schwarzwald  sap  in  it,  and  be  finally  dis- 
gusted. I  admit  that  trees  ought  to  think  twice 
before  they  flourish  in  such  a  disgraced  place  as 
the  Fatherland.  ^^Chi  va  coi  zoppi,  all*  anno 
zoppica/'  But  you've  not  only  to  gather  ye  rose- 
buds while  ye  may,  but  where  ye  may.  And  so, 
as  I  said  before,  the  Black  Forest,  etc. 

I  know,  Columbia,  dear  Libertas,  you'll  take 
my  posy  and  put  your  carrot  aside  for  a  minute, 


294        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

and  smile,  and  say:  'Tm  sure,  Mr.  Lawrence, 
it  is  a  long  time  since  I  had  such  a  perfectly 
beautiful  bunch  of  ideas  brought  me."  And  I 
shall  blush  and  look  sheepish  and  say:  "So  glad 
you  think  so.  I  believe  you'll  find  they'll  keep 
fresh  quite  a  long  time,  if  you  put  them  in  wa- 
ter." Whereupon  you,  Columbia,  with  real 
American  gallantry:  "Oh,  they'll  keep  for  ever, 
Mr.  Lawrence.  They  couldn't  be  so  cruel  as  to 
go  and  die,  such  perfectly  lovely-colored  ideas. 
Lovely!    Thank  you  ever,  ever  so  much." 

Just  think  of  it,  Columbia,  how  pleased  we 
shall  be  with  one  another :  and  how  much  nicer 
it  will  be  than  if  you  snorted  "High-falutin' 
Nonsense" — or  "Wordy  mass  of  repulsive  rub- 
bish." 

"When  they  were  busy  making  Italy,  and  were 
just  going  to  put  it  in  the  oven  to  bake :  that  is, 
when  Garibaldi  and  Vittorio  Emmanuele  had 
won  their  victories  at  Caserta,  Naples  prepared 
to  give  them  a  triumphant  entry.  So  there  sat 
the  little  king  in  his  carriage:  he  had  short  legs 
and  huge  swagger  mustaches  and  a  very  big 
bump  of  philoprogeniture.  The  town  was  all 
done  up,  in  spite  of  the  rain.  And  down  either 
side  of  the  wide  street  were  hasty  statues  of  large, 
well-fleshed  ladies,  each  one  holding  up  a  fore- 


EPILOGUE  295 

finger.  We  don't  know  what  the  king  thought. 
But  the  staff  held  their  breath.  The  king's  appe- 
tite for  strapping  ladies  was  more  than  notorious, 
and  naturally  it  looked  as  if  Naples  had  done  it 
on  purpose. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  forefinger  meant  Italia 
Una!    "Italy  shall  be  one."    Ask  Don  Sturzo. 

Now  you  see  how  risky  statues  are.  How 
many  nice  little  asses  and  poets  trot  over  the  At- 
lantic and  catch  sight  of  Liberty  holding  up  this 
carrot  of  desire  at  arm's  length,  and  fairly  hear 
her  say,  as  one  does  to  one's  pug  dog,  with  a  lump 
of  sugar:  "Beg!  Beg!" — and  "Jump!  Jump, 
then!"  And  each  little  ass  and  poodle  begins  to 
beg  and  to  jump,  and  there's  a  rare  game  round 
about  Liberty,  zap,  zap,  zapperty-zap! 

Do  lower  the  carrot,  gentle  Liberty,  and  let  us 
talk  nicely  and  sensibly.  I  don't  like  you  as  a 
car 0 fata,  precious. 

Talking  about  the  moon,  it  is  thrilling  to  read 
the  announcements  of  Professor  Pickering  of 
Harvard,  that  it's  almost  a  dead  cert  that  there's 
life  on  our  satellite.  It  is  almost  as  certain  that 
there's  life  on  the  moon  as  it  is  certain  there  is 
life  on  Mars.  The  professor  bases  his  assertions 
on  photographs — hundreds  of  photographs — of 
a  crater  with  a  circumference  of  thirty-seven 


296        FANTASIA  OF  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

miles.  I'm  not  satisfied.  I  demand  to  know  the 
yards,  feet  and  inches.  You  don't  come  it  over 
me  with  the  triteness  of  these  round  numbers. 

^'Hundreds  of  photographic  reproductions 
have  proved  irrefutably  the  springing  up  at 
dawn,  with  an  unbelievable  rapidity,  of  vast 
fields  of  foliage  which  come  into  blossom  just  as 
rapidly  (sic!)  and  which  disappear  in  a  max- 
imum period  of  eleven  days." — Again  I'm  not 
satisfied.  I  want  to  know  if  they're  cabbages, 
cress,  mustard,  or  marigolds  or  dandelions  or 
daisies.  Fields  of  foliage,  mark  you.  And  blos- 
som! Come  now,  if  you  can  get  so  far.  Pro- 
fessor Pickering,  you  might  have  a  shrewd  guess 
as  to  whether  the  blossoms  are  good  to  eat,  or  if 
they're  purely  for  ornament. 

I  am  only  waiting  at  last  for  an  aeroplane  to 
land  on  one  of  these  fields  of  foliage  and  find  a 
donkey  grazing  peacefully.    Hee-haw! 

*'The  plates  moreover  show  that  great  bliz- 
zards, snow-storms,  and  volcanic  eruptions  are 
also  frequent."  So  no  doubt  the  blossoms  are 
edelweiss. 

"We  find,"  says  the  professor,  "a  living  world 
at  our  very  doors  where  life  in  some  respects 
resembles  that  of  Mars."  All  I  can  say  is :  'Tray 


EPILOGUE  29^ 

come  in,  Mr.  Moony.  And  how  is  your  cousin^ 
Signor  Martian?" 

Now  I'm  sure  Professor  Pickering's  photo- 
graphs and  observations  are  really  wonderful. 
But  his  explanations!  Come  now,  Columbia, 
where  is  your  High-falutin'  Nonsense  trumpet? 
Vast  fields  of  foliage  which  spring  up  at 
dawn  (!!!)  and  come  into  blossom  just  as 
quickly  (!!!!)  are  rather  too  flowery  even  for 
my  flowery  soul.  But  there,  truth  is  stranger 
than  fiction. 

ril  bet  my  moon  against  the  Professor's,  any- 
how. 

So  long,  Columbia.    A  river derci. 


\<^ii 


